I could not find the same problem you spoke of regarding rape and domestic assault rates. The focus was a two-year period, and over that two-year period in which they gathered the statistics there was a very large increase.

Back to the original question you raised, since it raises what most other commentators have missed completely/conveniently.

Paula Loyd was supposedly a cultural specialist when it came to Afghanistan. She also had a degree in anthropology, not an advanced one, but a degree nonetheless. She had spent several years in Afghanistan. According to Paula Loyd herself, she was not subject to the same rules and standards as Afghan women:

”Sometimes I’ll be talking to the men in a village and they’ll turn to the interpreter and say, ‘Is that a man or a woman?’ But I haven’t had any problems with them. They’ve all been very nice,” Loyd said….Loyd said Afghans do not expect their societal norms to apply to her because she is not from their culture. ”So the fact that I’m a woman doesn’t mean I need to be in a burka and they can’t deal with me. They take me for who I am, they accept me for who I am. And they’re willing to work with me,” she said.

She apparently reflected this very thinking in speaking to Abdul Salam. Whatever Afghan norms may be regarding professional women and so forth, Loyd says they were not applied to her. This attack, therefore, cannot be understood as “another example” of how Afghan men treat women, and therefore the focus of so many American commentators is entirely misplaced to begin with — that is, if we believe Loyd.

If we do not believe Loyd, and most of her online mourners do not realize that they in fact undermine her credibility and her knowledge, then there are only two options available: Loyd was ignorant, and really did not understand Afghan culture, or, she did, she would have expected such an attack, and she was just stupid. Either way, her supposed mourners and sympathizers put her in this position, not me. Keep in mind, none of her teammates apparently thought anything was unusual about a local man speaking to Loyd, since none intervened immediately sensing possible danger.

Now, what do the many online American critics of Salam like to say repeatedly? The attack on Loyd is representative of their culture, which does not discriminate between local and foreign females, and all independent and professional females are to be targeted for murder. So they know better than Loyd.

Moreover, they use the opportunity of her death to stereotype and malign a culture. Then why are Americans there? To “civilize” these people, with gun shots to the head?

1 – The statistics gathering changed so there is no way to know whether violence against women increased between the two test dates.

2 – Women have never been a priority in this country, or even on equal footing to men. So culturally, The violence is allowed to happen.

Okay, and one more thing pops to mind, perhaps the point of your counterquestion is to make me consider the similarities between US and Afgan society with regard to women.

I am wondering if you could answer this question for me in turn: What do you think is the cultural significance in the U.S. that, while other crimes are decreasing, the rate of rapes and domestic violence against women is soaring? See:

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/12/18/us-soaring-rates-rape-and-violence-against-women

Satchel’s quote comes from a story in today’s Boston Globe:

Anthropologist’s war death reverberates
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/02/12/anthropologists_war_death_reverberates/?page=full

Just for the record, I am not an Assistant Professor. I have tenure, and I am an Associate Professor. My departmental website has not been updated in many ages. The article above is in error on this point.

The funny irony with the Boston Globe piece is that they also link to my YouTube video of Paula Loyd. While some of the comments rant about my quote (amusing stuff!), what happens when they go to the video? They see me staring right back at them, and a video that serves as a virtual memorial for Loyd, all of the comments having been approved by me, without challenge. The simpler minds will boggle.

Thanks for the comment above. I was hoping Satchel would return and take me up on my offer of having the last word.