Questions About Karzai

Though I've not known much about him, I've admired Harmid Karzai since he became the interim President of Afghanistan. He's seemed intelligent and sophisticated, even statesmanlike. Within the last 24 hours, however, I've learned a couple of things about him which trouble me.

First, in Fahrenheit 911, Moore draws all sorts of connections between the oil industry and what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, I've never been one to believe that this was a "War for Oil," but some for the facts Moore unearths are disturbing. Among them, Moore claims that Karzai was once a paid consultant for the US oil industry, specifically for Unocal.
Now, as this article points, Karzai hasn't addressed this allegegation, though a spokesman of his has recently denied it. A Unocal spokesman also denies Karzai was ever on the payroll. However, "the current U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, was a Unocal consultant in the 1990s, a State Department spokesman confirmed" earlier this month.

Anyway, I wonder what Karzai would have to say? Maybe he was not a *paid* advisor, but what *was* his status? Nonetheless, I'll concede that the questions about this aspect of his past seem speculative--at this point.

Adding fuel to the conspiracy theories, on December 27th, 2002, Karzai did sign a pipeline contract with Turkmenistan and Pakistan. The deal ensured Afghanistan would "profit by receiving millions of dollars in transit fees and construction of the pipeline would provide thousands of desperately needed jobs." This event plays into some left-wing conspiracies which claim that Unocal was involved in the deal, though I can find no credible evidence to that end. Perhaps, Karzai was just doing the prudent thing in looking out for his country.

The other story, however, is much easier to verify and says a lot about how far women's rights still have to go in Afghanistan. At a gathering to mark International Women's Day, Karzai tried to convince Afghan men to allow women to vote in upcoming elections :

Please, my dear brothers, let your wives and sisters go to the voter registration process. Later, you can control who she votes for, but please, let her go.

Now, sure, I can think of some ways to explain that away: after all, the women can vote in secret, so they can really vote for whoever they want to, right? Well, are the women supposed to lie if their husbands ask them who they voted for later? When Karzai says "you can control who she votes for" isn't he just encouraging misogyny?

I guess you could argue that progress takes time. They're taking baby steps towards democracy, right? Karzai's just being diplomatic. Maybe so, but it sure would be nice to hear the President of Afghanistan speak out passionately on behalf of women's rights instead of caving before these conservative men.