America Creating 'Talibanization' in Pakistan, Say Arab Media

The specter of a Taliban takeover of Pakistan has been haunting Western media. As the fighting between Pakistani forces and the Taliban intensifies, Arab media are pointing the finger at the United States. The Obama Administration does not understand Pashtun cultural traditions, say the media. It is using force first, just as the Bush administration had done. In fact, the air strikes killing many civilians are actually creating more Talibanization, say Arab media.

Western medias major focus is Talibans treatment of women. A video of a Pakistani teenager being whipped on her buttocks was played by Western televisions over and over, turning the Swat Valley crisis into women vs. the Taliban.

This is how the Taliban dispenses justice, said an ABC report. Whipping a teenager 13 times because they say she was alone with a man who was not her husband. The video of the flogging has galvanized women and civil society groups to protest against Talibanization, reported the BBC. CNN featured a woman who had fled Swat Valley out of fear of the Taliban.

Arab media, however, regard the collapse of the Swat Valley peace agreement as a catastrophe. Many Arab televisions focused on the suffering of the hundreds of thousands who were forced to flee from the fighting areas to poorly prepared camps lacking food and water. Arab media do not condone the Talibans treatment of women, but they see what is happening in the Swat Valley as much bigger than women vs. Taliban.

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