A Hopeful Viewpoint 

 Weeks ago, a discussion board was assigned . It asked students to analyze a speech from Barack Obama. He addressed a crowd in Kenya about the changing morals in America and how other countries can do the same as well. 

Obama said, “Every country and every culture has unique traditions that help make that country what it is. But just because something is a part of your past doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t mean that it defines your future.”

Good intentions were in his message. However, there are some countries that may never change.

He emphasized, “Treating women as second-class citizens is a bad tradition. It holds you back… These traditions may date back centuries; they have no place in the 21st century.”

It is true when Obama says that practices that oppress women and children are wrong. However, he cannot push “moral” values on cultures that have always felt a certain way.

The Harsh Reality

While Americans believe that women being stoned to death for showing too much skin is an unnecessary and an extreme act of violence. The Taliban may view it as necessary. Both America’s and the Taliban’s views are completely different. Just because Obama says, “What the Taliban is doing is wrong” doesn’t mean they will change. They themselves feel what the women they’re stoning is doing is wrong. As of May earlier this year, they took over Afghanistan again.

Another example of something not changing in Afghanistan is the practice of sexual enslavement of minors. The centuries only practice known as Bacha bāzi is common In parts of the country. It involves kidnapped young boys forced to belly dance for older men at parties. The most powerful attendee usually sexually abuses them. The pratice is popular amongst Afghan police, army, and pro-American warlords.

According to the Newsline Institute, the practice was one of the contributing factors to the rise of the Taliban, who opposed Bacha Bāzi and punished its predators and victims alike. Soldiers of the United States and its allies were ordered not to interfere with the practice if observed because a sizable portion of Afghan commanders deemed it “necessary”.

Everyone won’t hear Obama’s morality speech. Other westernized nations such as Europe are a most of the only nations that can become as “accepting” as us while maintaining stability. Freedom may be achieved in some other places for a few years, but eventually, peace will be broken.