Re my bad referencing …. how embarassing. Please find it now corrected!

A bizarre thing happened: the RAWA speaker you mention here came into my department at the University of Queensland and I didn’t realise this was on. I was really interested to hear about your experiences of the presentation. The RAWA situation is hard to assess - you get it with the ‘bit World Vision’ comment. My sense is that the RAWA reps do take opportunities to speak from another perspective.
The description of the Oprah incident is from ‘Zoya’s Story’ by the way, not ‘Latifa’.
It is weird to write a book then have it go into space and not know what is happening, so your comment is really rewarding for this writer. Thanks

No doubt because I\’ve been reading Whitlock\’s \’Soft Weapons\’, I was particularly thinking of the way in which RAWA is consumed by western feminists. The woman who \’brought Sohaila out here\’ (her words), for example, had much to say yesterday about \’how many wonderful opportunities Sohaila has had because of RAWA\’, and that\’s why we (mostly young white women students) should support them, such as by purchasing some handicrafts made by Afghan widows. There was something a bit World Vision (of life under the burqa) about it. Whereas Sohaila (not her real name, because if the Afghan government finds out she is part of RAWA she will be killed) emphasised things like the AU government\’s collaboration with the US and the impact that is having on Afghan women, particularly after 20 years of war.

As Whitlock suggests, \”RAWA … maneuver[s] to pursue their needs and interests and to accomodate and respect what can be dramatically different investments by feminist activists in the West.\” (p.66).