I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the hijacked plane from Afghanistan and the people who were on board, both hostages and hijackers. I do not support terrorism or advocate the use of violence to get your way. I think bombs and guns and bloodshed and fear are really stupid methods of trying to gain support for your cause, whatever it may be. And I don’t blame the English for saying that they would not tolerate actions like this being used as a means of gaining political asylum in England.

But there are two sides to (almost) every story, and I think that you have to look hard at both sides before you pass judgment on something.

So, if the whole thing really did take place just so that the hijackers and the people in league with them could get out of Afghanistan, then I can understand the hijackers’ motivation. That’s not to say that I think they shouldn’t have to face the consequences of hijacking a plane and holding people hostage. It’s a crime, and they should be punished somehow.

But considering the nightmare that Afghanistan has become, I can sympathize with the desperation behind the crime. As for the hostages, being on that hijacked plane was probably the best thing that could have happened to a lot of them. About half are seeking asylum in England, half are going back to Afghanistan, and I find myself wondering who these people are.

Are the ones going back doing it because they feel they have to, because they have family in Afghanistan that they can’t leave behind? Or do they really want to - is the relationship to their homeland stronger than their desire for freedom and, if not prosperity, than at least a more comfortable existence?

And of the ones who are applying for asylum - did they have to wrestle with their conscience before making such a decision? Are they leaving family in Afghanistan? Do they fear that their friends and family in Afghanistan will suffer because of their decision?

And ultimately: what would I have chosen to do in that situation?

In particular, I wonder about the fate of the women on board. Are there women seeking asylum on their own? Are there women who would like to stay in England, but who are being forced to go back to Afghanistan? And in general, do a lot of women in Afghanistan accept the way their lives are because they buy into the idea that that’s the way it’s meant to be? Or are they struggling under the oppression by the Taliban and fully conscious of the injustice being done to them?

This line of thought brought me to a television show about Afghanistan that I saw last year. The show was called “Thirty Years Ago”, and it was an actual German documentary on Afghanistan from - you guessed it - thirty years ago. It was one of the more depressing things I’ve ever seen on television.

Thirty years ago, women in Afghanistan were studying and working, were shopping and going to the hairdresser, were wearing makeup and modern clothing, were leading normal, self-determined lives. Today a woman in Afghanistan can’t even go see a doctor, much less be a doctor. The women there are prisoners in their own homes, in their own homeland.

Women who were just 20 years old at the start of the 1970’s are only around 50 years old today. These women know what freedom is, and I have to believe that they do consciously suffer under the restrictions that have been placed on their lives. And maybe the men suffer, too. Perhaps a lot of them play along with the patriarchal fanaticism of the Taliban because they have to. Perhaps a lot of them were desperately wishing that they were on that hijacked plane.

I really don’t expect the whole world to think like I do. There are aspects of some cultures and societies that I don’t really understand and that, from my feminist American point of view, seem oppressive to me. But I don’t have the right to impose my views of the world on other people, and if people are happy with their lives and no one is getting hurt, then I think “live and let live.”

There is a difference, however, between practices I may find personally oppressive and practices that I think are universally inhumane. It’s an entirely subjective difference, I know - one person’s tradition is another person’s torture - but it’s there nonetheless, and I can’t help but let my conscience be ruled by it. There are certain things that should be considered Wrong no matter where you’re from. Slavery is Wrong. Genocide is Wrong. Torture is Wrong. Period.

In this case, my conscience tells me that what is happening to people - particularly women - in Afghanistan goes against this universal morality. Turning people into prisoners in their own homeland is Wrong.

And as far as the hijacking goes, it boils down to this: Other people may look at the hijackers and say, “They’re criminals, send ‘em all back where they belong” - which would undoubtedly be sentencing them to torture and death in Afghanistan. I look at those hijackers and I have to think, “You know, I don’t blame you guys.” If I was in that type of situation, and I had the guts, then maybe I would hijack a plane too.