“Remaking Iraq Without Guns,” by Irshad Manji, New York Times, 5 June, p. A25.
I cite this article simply for this brilliant sequence:
“An investment in Muslim women benefits men and children too. Testifying to this multiplier effect are the signs in some Afghan schools: ‘Educate a boy and you educate that boy; educate a girl and you educate her entire family.’ Indeed, the 30-year record of microlending shows that Muslim women have helped nourish their neighborhoods and towns by building their own businesses. As for the repayment rate? A bankers’ fantasy fulfilled: 98 percent.The connectivity displayed in that analysis is brilliant: women, education, entrepreneurship, business development, tax base, responsible government—shrinking that Gap one women—I mean, one family—at a time.
With that in mind, suppose Washington joined a coalition of rich allies around the world—the Group of 8 nations as well as private foundations—to offer women in Iraq a coherent programs of microbusiness loans. Pursuing this type of soft power could also compel government transparency in a way that even popular movements couldn’t. Only a broad and inclusive business class that can be taxed by the state will, in turn, convince the state to develop institutions that respond to people. Americans know this principle better than anybody. It’s called representation with taxation.”
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