海角大神

Part of what is so shocking about the public execution of an Afghan聽woman for alleged adultery is where it took place.

The close-up shooting took place in Parwan Province before a crowd of聽150 onlookers who cheered the killers as 鈥渕ujahideen鈥� as the woman was聽shot nine times. The Afghan government says the incident, captured on聽video, was the work of the Taliban; a Taliban spokesman denies this.

Parwan Province lies just north of the capital Kabul and houses Bagram聽Air Field, a massive US base. This incident took place directly under聽the noses of the Afghan government and the international community.

Since the Taliban鈥檚 ouster in 2001, the province has always been the聽most obvious place for foreigners聽looking聽to work or relax聽outside Kabul. It鈥檚 one of the safest places in the country, with the聽large security footprint, good connectivity to the capital, and the聽mostly-Tajik ethnic makeup.

I have made the journey a half dozen times since 2005. There鈥檚 a聽lovely ice cream shop off one of the rotaries, and a decent restaurant聽serving fish and kebabs overlooking the Panjshir River.

The province has received a lot of development assistance, both by聽nongovernmental organizations based out of nearby Kabul and from the聽military Provincial Reconstruction Team operating out of Bagram.

A local elder in Parwan once told me how the foreigners had now built聽three girls鈥� schools within a mile of each other. Girls schools are a聽popular project for foreigners, and Parwan is a popular place to put聽them, given the relative security, but there weren鈥檛 enough girls in聽the area to fill three, the elder claimed. Instead, the security guard聽at one of the schools did nothing but protect the squirrels and birds聽who nested in the empty building.

So if there鈥檚 any place where the international community might expect聽to wield influence and blunt the rougher edges of village life, Parwan聽would be it.

But the execution follows a number of disturbing events in Parwan that suggest slipping Western influence.

• When news emerged that US soldiers had inadvertently burned some聽Qurans at Bagram, a member of Parliament from Parwan named Abdul聽Sattar Khawasi declared that 鈥渏ihad against Americans is an聽obligation.鈥�
• More than 80 schoolgirls were hospitalized in 2009 after feeling ill聽and reporting a strange odor in their classroom. The Afghan government聽has claimed these incidents are Taliban poisonings, but a recent World聽Health Organization investigation concluded these periodic incidents聽are 鈥渕ass hysteria鈥� not uncommon in conflict zones.
• The Long War Journal website notes that the security situation has聽grown 鈥渆specially perilous鈥� since last year. NATO turned over security聽responsibilities for the province to the Afghans in December of 2011.

Parwan presents a problem for those who argue that foreign militaries need to stay to hold the country together and protect its women. As regional expert Christine Fair told CNN in the wake of the execution, 鈥淲e can ask the question what will happen when we leave, but let鈥檚 remember that this is actually happening while we鈥檙e still there.鈥�