In this week’s New Yorker, Seymour Hersh, the well-known national security correspondent, writes about a secret plan by the Obama administration to use American troops, if necessary, to protect Pakistan’s nuclear assets.

Daljit Dhaliwal talks to Hersh about why the Taliban overrunning Islamabad is not the only — or even the greatest — concern. Hersh contents that the principal fear is mutiny: extremists inside the Pakistani military could stage a coup and take control of some of the country’s nuclear assets.

In a country where a woman is confined to her home, Joya is breaking all kinds of cultural, social and religious stereotypes. In May 2007, she was suspended after referring to the parliament as a stable, she said at least in “in a stable we have animals like a cow which is useful in that it provides milk and a donkey that carry a load.”

She speaks candidly about the challenges facing Afghanistan. She says that the low turnout in the presidential election is proof that the Afghan people are dissatisfied with the current government. She attributes the rise of Taliban to the failed policy of the U.S. in Afghanistan. She is also a staunch opponent of increasing U.S. troop levels in her country. Joya wants the U.S. and NATO to keep in mind that no foreign military has ever succeeded in controlling Afghanistan.

For her, the status of women now is no different than under the Taliban. She says that it may even be worse because the rate of suicide and abduction is high, and many rapists go untouched.

Because she is unabashedly outspoken, her life is under constant threat and she must be accompanied by bodyguards. But nothing so far seems to succeed in slowing her down. For sure not the many failed assassination attempts on her life, or the awful treatment she gets from her male colleagues in parliament.

Joya spent her childhood at a refugee camp in Iran and Pakistan, and returned to the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the late 1990s and worked for an underground organization helping women. She is now on a book tour in the U.S.  promoting her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Woman Who Dared to Speak Out, co-written by Derrick O’Keefe.

- Mohammad Al Kassim

But we don’t hear much about the toll on average Pakistanis and how they cope with the menace of militant attacks every day.

Daljit Dhaliwal talks about everyday life in Lahore with Saeed Shafqat, adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Approximately 150 miles away In the northwestern city of Peshawar, a car bomb tore through a busy market. The death toll from today’s terror attacks in Pakistan has risen to some 100 people. The bombing is thought to be the work of militants allied with the Taliban.

Ahmad Kamal, a Pakistani diplomat for 40 years - 10 of them as Pakistan’s UN ambassador - speaks with Daljit Dhaliwal about the relationship between the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the escalation of attacks. He also examines what it will take to end the violence in both countries.

A Burka-clad woman in Afghanistan. Photo: Flickr user YanBoechat

S. Azmat Hassan, a former Pakistani diplomat, is now a professor at Seton Hall University.  He writes about the unending search for Osama bin Laden and why the U.S. should shift its strategy.

The month of October marks the eighth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. It is now over eight years since the Bush administration successfully removed the Taliban regime from power in Kabul. But there was a crucial difference between the US eviction of Saddam from Kuwait and forcible regime change in Afghanistan.

In the former case the U.S. led coalition made sure that the Iraqi Army was destroyed. In the case of the Taliban many of their soldiers were allowed to escape to the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. Inexplicably, they were not pursued and neutralized. The Taliban lived to fight another day, and today they have regrouped to become a formidable fighting force.

Similarly, Osama bin Laden, who was virtually trapped in the Tora Bora Mountains in eastern Afghanistan, eluded capture. His whereabouts have remained unknown despite the millions of dollars spent on the largest manhunt in history. A FBI reward promising $25 million for information leading to his arrest has also proved unavailing so far. More pertinent I believe is the question: how relevant is bin Laden to America’s security concerns?

Bin Laden’s views may still appeal to a scattered following in Yemen, Somalia, parts of North Africa and elsewhere, but his ability to energize a vast multitude of Muslims to fight America seems to have been seriously compromised.

So the time has probably come to lessen our morbid fascination with the man. The Taliban leadership in Afghanistan may have already written him off as a credible ally. Instead of continuing to expend resources and efforts to find Bin Laden, it may be better for the US to reach out to elements among the Afghan Taliban.The attempt should be to wean them away from the diehard elements around Mullah Omar.

This effort would require, in security expert Bruce Hoffman’s words, “intelligence on the ground.” Do the U.S. and NATO have enough Pashto-speaking operatives deployed in Afghanistan to accomplish this task? If the Taliban commanders can be assured of a power sharing arrangement in the Afghan government, the present fraught situation in Afghanistan could conceivably take a turn for the better.

The Pashtun tribesmen do not form a monolithic bloc. It is military confrontation by the US that unites them against what they perceive to be a foreign military occupying their land. If they see the prospect of an end to the Afghan war through co-optation in the Afghan government, they may be willing to lay down their weapons.

I believe it is desirable to explore this option to end a ruinous war which if pursued militarily alone, could last indefinitely. This prospect would not be in the interest of any of the principal actors. It would probably engender more turmoil, more bloodshed and more agony in that region, with ominous consequences for all.

The Times reporter conducting an interview. Photo: Tomas Munita for The New York Times

Edward Deitch is the consulting producer and head writer at Worldfocus. He looks at how one reporter describes an ordeal in Afghanistan and Pakistan — and what it may mean for U.S. policymakers.

It was unfortunate, even heartbreaking, how David Rohde gained first-hand knowledge of the Taliban. The New York Times correspondent went to Afghanistan last November to research a book, but before getting very far he was kidnapped by a Taliban commander who had invited him for an interview.

Held for more than seven months across the border in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas, he lived to write about his experience. It’s the kind of story that no one would have wished for but that few will turn away from.

In a series of Times articles this week, Rohde recounts his experience and those of two Afghan colleagues abducted with him. You can see a related video segment from this Worldfocus partner in tonight’s broadcast.

Rohde’s perspective on the Taliban is particularly relevant. Pakistan is conducting a large-scale offensive against the insurgents in South Waziristan, one of the areas where Rohde was held. And President Obama is pondering whether to commit more troops to the effort against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

There will most certainly be a book and, inevitably, a movie. But I doubt Hollywood will do justice to the material. Rohde’s ordeal, in his own words, is the kind of story you can’t make up.

There have been countless dispatches on the fight against the Taliban from the American and British points of view. Following the troops in Afghanistan for a few days or weeks is routine for reporters, whether they are from The Times, American television news outlets, or foreign broadcasters such as Australia’s ABC or Al Jazeera English, whose reports we have featured on our program. Al Jazeera English has also provided glimpses into the Taliban side, especially in Pakistan.

By contrast, David Rohde, without a choice in the matter, experienced what might be described as the ultimate embed with the Taliban, and some of his revelations are worth noting as U.S. policymakers confront the growing dangers in Afghanistan and Pakistan:

• The group that held him “oversaw a sprawling Taliban mini-state in the tribal areas with the de facto acquiescence of the Pakistani military.”

• U.S. drone attacks on Taliban targets “killed many senior commanders and hindered their operations. Yet the Taliban were able to garner recruits in their aftermath by exaggerating the number of civilian casualties.”

• The Taliban “were more sophisticated than I expected. They browsed the Internet and listened to hourly news updates on Azadi radio, a station run by the American government. But then they dismissed whatever information did not meet their preconceptions.”

Even the surreal moments are instructive. Rohde was baffled, he tells us, by how his guards liked to sing with him, and their favorite song was none other than “She Loves You” by the Beatles. He recounts how he would sing the first verse and the guards and his fellow captives would join in for the chorus. “’She loves you – yeah, yeah, yeah,’ we sang, with Kalashnikovs lying on the floor around us.” One can only imagine it.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of Rohde’s story, with all its twists and turns. It is a thriller set in an unfolding and deepening conflict with no end in sight. It provides a rare and raw look at just what the United States and its allies are up against. It’s difficult to read but hard to put down.

- Edward Deitch

Few, if any, humanitarian preparations have been made for the 150,000 civilians who have already fled the military’s campaign against 10,000 Taliban militants.

Imran Khan of Al Jazeera English reports on the humanitarian consequences of the Pakistani military’s newest campaign.

Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at The Atlantic Council, speaks with Martin Savidge about Pakistani law enforcement strategies, recent bomb attacks and an expected offensive in South Waziristan.

After a surge in attacks targeting police officers, the Pakistani government is preparing for a ground offensive in a key Taliban stronghold. Al Jazeera English’s Imran Khan reports from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Ahmad Kamal, a Pakistani diplomat for 40 years and Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United Nations, joins Martin Savidge to discuss Pakistan’s war against Islamic militants and whether the U.S. is paying enough attention to Afghanistan’s neighbor.

Kamal Hyder of Al Jazeera English reports from Pakistan on the deteriorating security situation.

Zeina Khodr of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports the Afghan capital Kabul on the difficult decisions that now face U.S. President Barack Obama.

Hassan Abbas, a Bernard Schwartz fellow at the Asia Society in New York, discusses links between Taliban factions and endorses the U.S. aid package for Pakistan.

Authorities say a suicide bomber dressed as a security officer and carrying a large object made his way into the lobby of the World Food Program’s headquarters in Islamabad. They say he detonated 18 pounds of explosives, killing five people.

On Sunday, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan warned of new attacks in retaliation for U.S. missile strikes along the border with Afghanistan.

Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and former State Department analyst on Afghanistan and Pakistan, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the debate about Afghanistan war strategy and the connection between the Taliban in Pakistan and in Afghanistan.

Should the United States demand that Pakistan do even more to contain Taliban extremists operating in Pakistan?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

They look at President Barack Obama’s reversal on a missile defense plan for Europe, the battle against Islamic militants and this week’s United Nations report on the war in Gaza — including charges that conduct by Israel and the Palestinian militants amounted to war crimes.

Beards were mandated in Swat Valley under Taliban rule.

Residents of Pakistan’s Swat Valley are readjusting to life after the end of Taliban rule, nearly three months after Pakistan retook the area with a military offensive.

Under Taliban rule, barbers were banned from shaving off beards. As a Worldfocus contributor writes, that rule is no longer in effect — but having a beard is still not a matter of choice.

Phyza Jameel is a Pakistani journalist and the bureau chief of CNBC-Pakistan in Lahore, writing at the “Frontline Blog.”

“He has an appointment with you; he has come from Swat,” my assistant informed me. I was confused; I had a meeting scheduled with Sarmad Behzaad, one of my dedicated news sources from the Swat region.

“Send him in,” I told my assistant. He sat down and started with the usual polite greetings in the Swati Urdu accent. This was Sarmad. “My God,” I said, “You look so different.”

I had met Sarmad some six months back. Then, a cluster of thick hair hung on his face, a beard from which it was difficult to locate his mouth and nose. “How did this happen?” I asked.

Sarmad smirked and said, “We had been forced to grow beards because of the strong Taliban influence. All the barbershops were closed and clean-shaven men were intimidated by them, so we all had to grow beards.”

“Did you shave when the Taliban left?” I asked.

“No, it wasn’t that the Taliban went away and we shaved — actually we were now used to it — but recently, having a beard has become more of a problem. Now that the security forces have taken control, they are suspecting every bearded man as being part of the Taliban. It was so much hassle that I had to let it go.”

Back in the spring, Swat was one of the most affluent places of the entire northern region. Since it was a popular tourist destination, the people had more interaction and in general were more cosmopolitan.

People in Swat were more advanced in terms of education and business. But during the time of Taliban control, the people of Swat had to obey absurd regulations in the name of Islam. Taliban banned men from wearing pants as well as from shaving their beard and moustache. Barbershops were closed and barbers were threatened and ordered not to shave any man labelling it as “haraam.”

According to Sarmad, during the Taliban period it was hard to find any clean-shaven men. Since the military operation has been completed, 80 percent of the men are now clean-shaven in Swat and the surrounding area.

As Sarmad states, “ To keep a beard or not to keep beard — it’s not a personal choice in Swat; it’s directly related to the ruling agenda in the region.”

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user aturkus under a Creative Commons license.

James Bays of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English takes a look at what some Afghans faced.

A woman at a polling centre in Kandahar City.

Afghanistan is heading to the polls for national elections — but out of 41 presidential candidates, only two are women. Progress has been slow since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Perhaps to appease conservatives ahead of the election, President Hamid Karzai recently enacted a law allowing men to deny their wives food if the women refuse to comply with sexual demands.

Masha Hamilton is a novelist who founded the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, aimed at allowing Afghan women to have a direct voice. She describes women’s concerns as Afghanistan’s future takes shape.

One autumn morning not long after dawn, Shaista Hakim stood outside on her Kabul balcony, her head bare, sleep still in her eyes as she hung laundry. She quietly hummed to herself. Her husband and two young children lay peacefully asleep inside. Suddenly, on the street below, a gray car shrieked to a halt. The driver, wearing a turban, glared up at her with an expression so venomous it frightened her back inside.

Peeking through the window, she watched him push himself from his car. A moment later, she heard him pounding at her door. “I took off my glasses, put on a scarf and opened the door,” she recalled. “I was very scared.”

“Don’t ever go outside again without a burqa, or you will be arrested,” the man warned, his voice shaking with anger. He turned on heel and strode away.

The date: September 27, 1996, nearly thirteen years ago. Overnight, the Taliban had taken charge of Kabul, and the shift in the capital city was dramatic. To Mrs. Hakim, it felt as abrupt — and within a week, she and her young family abandoned their jobs and their apartment, fleeing the Taliban shadow and heading to Pakistan.

Mrs. Hakim returned to Kabul only after the post-9/11 fall of the Taliban, and I met her during a visit to Afghanistan last November. She now works as the director of a center that treats female drug addicts. Her job is not easy, nor is it often cheerful — she and her team brave Kabul’s most desperate and crime-ridden neighborhoods daily to reach out to women hooked on opium or heroin. Nevertheless, she considers it a gift that, for the moment at least, her government permits her to do the work she loves.

But Mrs. Hakim has become wary as Afghanistan goes again to the polls and calls have intensified in the last few months — from the U.S. to Europe to Afghanistan itself –- for the Afghan government to engage in dialogue with once-shunned moderate Taliban factions. She fears the change to a more conservative regime could happen overnight again –- that one morning on her balcony, she might look around to find her world unrecognizable.

President Hamid Karzai, long considered to hold geographically limited power (more like the “mayor of Kabul” than head of the country) has at times in recent months appeared to lose control even of Kabul. Observers, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have suggested his government’s survival may depend on opening talks with the Taliban.

Kathleen Rafiq, an American who began visiting Kabul after the fall of the Taliban and has lived there for the last four years doing humanitarian work, agrees. The Karzai government has repeatedly faced charges of ineffectiveness and corruption, and additionally, the Taliban has effectively taken control of much of the south of the country. “There is no way to solve the current political problems without bringing in the Taliban somehow,” Ms. Rafiq says, echoing a view widely held in Afghanistan itself.

Afghan women register to vote before an election in 2004.

But many Afghan women fear even the most moderate Taliban representatives will find it difficult to agree to a partnership with the Afghan government unless they win agreement for the country to follow a conservative interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law. This will by definition lead to renewed repression of women. Political expediency, these women say, may cost them their tenuous rights to walk outside without a burqa and male accompaniment, to attend school, to hold a job, even to hum as they hang laundry at dawn.

It is these fears that led me to develop an idea that had been percolating in the back of my mind for some time –- some kind of online link to Afghan women so that their voices would not be silenced, as they were during the previous Taliban rule. So that they would not again become invisible. So that we could hear directly from them, without having their words filtered through the voices of their men or the media.

From this sprang the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, an organization that has drawn generous volunteers from across the U.S. to reach out to women in Afghanistan. The project pairs Afghan women with authors and teachers here on a rotating basis and presents their work on a blog. And because it has become uncomfortable if not impossible for women to go into Internet cafes –- particularly in the south of the country but even in Kabul -– the AWWP is fundraising to open Afghanistan’s first-ever women’s-only Internet café.

Roya, one of the AWWP writers, wrote in a poem entitled Afghan Woman: “Who asks about my identity? I am lost on the pages of history books.” As the U.S. encourages the Afghan government to negotiate with the Taliban, we must make sure Afghan women do not become overlooked again.

- Masha Hamilton

For more on women in Afghanistan, view PBS Wide Angle’s “A Woman Among Warlords.”

Photo courtesy of Flickr users The Advocacy Project under a Creative Commons license.

A new report from the humanitarian organization Oxfam says that a third of the population is now at risk of hunger, and aid has been insufficient.

Shannon Scribner, a senior policy advisor on humanitarian issues for Oxfam America, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the dire situation facing much of the Afghan population.

On Tuesday, with the election two days away and the campaign winding down, the Taliban launched a series of attacks on the capital city of Kabul. A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy on the outskirts of the city, killing at least seven people and wounding another 50. Two mortar rounds also landed near the presidential palace.

U.S. President Barack Obama insists winning the war in Afghanistan is vital to America’s security interests, and a free and fair election no doubt would help that cause. But security concerns remain front and center.

Kimberly Marten, a professor of political science at Columbia University’s Barnard College, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the impending vote, U.S. strategy ahead of the election and the role of warlords.

Read what a U.S. Marine embedded trainer with the Afghan National Army had to say about the atmosphere ahead of elections: Securing the vote in volatile northeastern Afghanistan

On Tuesday, with the election two days away and the campaign winding down, the Taliban launched a series of attacks on the capital city of Kabul. A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy on the outskirts of the city, killing at least seven people and wounding another 50. Two mortar rounds also landed near the presidential palace.

U.S. President Barack Obama insists winning the war in Afghanistan is vital to America’s security interests, and a free and fair election no doubt would help that cause. But security concerns remain front and center.

Zeina Khodr of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports on the dangers in the southern city of Kandahar — from the safety of her car.

The United States believes the elections will legitimize the government, now led by a staunch U.S. ally, Hamid Karzai, who is widely expected to be re-elected to another term. But the Taliban is doing all it can to disrupt the vote — making threats of violence to any Afghan that goes to the polls on August 20.

Alex Their, the director of the Future of Afghanistan Project at the United States Institute of Peace, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the security situation during the election and how the results might impact the American mission in the country.

Afghanistan is actually a collection of many ethnic groups — the two biggest being the Pashtuns and the Tajiks. Many people are expected to vote along ethnic lines. Zeina Khodr of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports on what leading candidates are doing to bring out the vote, with the help of tribal elders.

Hundreds of Marines, along with Afghan troops, went into battle under the cover of darkness to take back control of the town of Dahaneh in Helmand Province, a key base for Taliban fighters.

Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who worked on an advisory board to General Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the offensive and the next phase of the war in Afghanistan.