[Kabul, November 11. Image via Getty]

US soldiers salute during a 'Veterans Day' ceremony at Camp Eggers in Kabul on November 11, 2009. NATO has a 71,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. AFP PHOTO/Massoud HOSSAINI (Photo credit should read MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Kabul, November 4. Image via Getty]

An internally displaced Afghan laughs in a camp in Kabul on November 4, 2009. Former presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah said Hamid Karzai's re-election as Afghan leader was illegal, accusing his rival of lacking a mandate to deliver on pledges of unity and reform. AFP PHOTO/ Nicolas ASFOURI (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Kabul, November 4. Image via Getty]

Afghan children stand by a wall with a poster of newly re-elected President Hamid Karzai as they watch Karzai supporters dance in celebration in the streets of Kabul on November 4, 2009. The main challenger in Afghanistan's troubled fraud-hit presidential election, Abdullah Abdullah, said Karzai's re-election 'has no legal basis'. AFP PHOTO/ Nicolas ASFOURI (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; November 3. Image via Getty]

CAMP LEJEUNE, NC - NOVEMBER 3: Captain Kenneth DelMazo hugs his daughter Izabella as the Marines in the 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, prepare to deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom November 3, 2009 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Once in Afghanistan, the unit will fall under the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade -Afghanistan. Their mission will be to support combat operations as an artillery battalion. (Photo by Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images)

[Maimai, Afghanistan; November 1. Image via Getty]

MAIMAI, AFGHANISTAN - NOVEMBER 1: An Afghan girl looks out from the window of a helicopter on November 1, 2009 in the remote village of Maimai in Badakshan province. Abdullah Abdullah has formally withdrawn from the run-off election only six days ahead of the vote. The top challenger to President Karzai demanded the removal of several election officials alleged to have been involved in voting fraud during the August 20 presidential election. President Hamid Karzai rejected his request as talks broke down yesterday. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

[Kabul, October 26. Image via Getty]

Afghan enterpreneur Hassina Syed, 27, president of privately run National Organization of Women (NOW), poses with ripe grapes at the Badam Bagh farm in Kabul on October 26, 2009. NOW's six hectare modern experimental farm is supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and employs some 1,100 workers, most of whom are women, during peak harvest seasons for itsgrapes, tomatoes, watermelons, cucumbers and strawberries, of which 40 percent is exported to Dubai. AFP PHOTO / ROMEO GACAD (Photo credit should read ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images)

A new article in the Daily Beast highlights the stories of two such women, Amina and Habiba. (The names in the article were changed for privacy.) Habiba enjoyed a thriving childcare business, until one horrific day:

Habiba's kindergarten at the end of a narrow and dusty alley is still open, but only barely. A year ago, laughter and the sounds of children playing floated from the new two-story white house with rows of little red and yellow chairs filling its freshly painted living rooms. Then Habiba's son was kidnapped by men demanding more than $25,000 from his mother, an outrageous sum for an entrepreneur saddled by startup debt and struggling to keep capital flowing through her young business. Fearing for her own safety and that of her other children, she shuttered her classrooms and moved her family to Pakistan while she awaited word from the men who took her son. The family's life savings vanished as Habiba spent what cash she had to cover travel and living expenses in Peshawar. By the time she returned to Afghanistan months later, her customers were gone, her business was hobbled and her debts had mounted. [...]

Female entrepreneurs now see their families threatened regularly. Sons, nephews, and sometimes the entrepreneurs themselves are abducted by thugs demanding tens of thousands of dollars, a death knell for businesswomen in a capital-starved country where banks don't tend to lend to small businesses, particularly ones owned by women without either collateral or a track record. The Afghan National Police have proved powerless to rein in the criminality now menacing the entrepreneurs the nation needs, if it is ever to stand on its own two feet without the financial backing of the increasingly impatient international community. (Habiba's son was released after being held for about six weeks.)

As tragic as Habiba's story is, the problem touches the lives of many women in Afghanistan. The article explains how many women turned toward entrepreneurship in the wake of the Taliban's reign of terror, as traditional options for employment closed in the face of extremism. As Afghanistan struggles to rebuild, women who are creating and managing businesses are the government's best hope toward steering the country's future. Sadly, with so many women being targeted, the hopes for women - as well as the economic health of the country - are slowly dribbling away.

For Amina*, an entrepreneur who owns a petrol distribution firm, it is too late for protection. Her small business grew steadily during the past few years, with revenue climbing after she opened a gas station convenience store. Criminals caught on to her success, however, and kidnapped her. Her family scrambled to gather the more than $100,000 in ransom money her abductors demanded, eventually winning her release, but she now owes friends and relatives tens of thousands of dollars. Profits Amina saved to grow her enterprise are gone-instead of financing investment, those dollars now fund her kidnappers. The fledgling entrepreneur's dream of expanding her distribution operations to neighboring provinces is destroyed and her company has run out of working capital. It is likely her dozen employees will soon be jobless.

Like Habiba, Amina was eager to build her business and help rebuild her nation. These entrepreneurs, like many others in Afghanistan, relied upon their ventures to support their extended families and to fund their children's education. Now, drained of cash and out of hope, they are eager to leave the country. But that might bring more danger, not less.

Reports like these underscore how important it is to take a full, comprehensive approach to solving a societal problem. As wonderful as microloan programs like Kiva can be, if women are persecuted for exercising these opportunities or for growing their businesses, all of our best efforts will be for naught.

Thugs Plague Women Entrepreneurs [The Daily Beast]

[Marseille, October 20. Image via Getty]

People demonstrate on October 20, 2009 in Marseille, southern France, to protest against the expulsion of illegal immigrants. A joint flight to repatriate illegal immigrants from Afghanistan to their country is planned by France and United Kingdom authorities late today despite of harsh criticism from French left-wing parties and humanitarian associations. AFP PHOTO / ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT (Photo credit should read ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/Getty Images)

[Savannah, October 19. Image via Getty]

SAVANNAH, GA - OCTOBER 19: Brittany Martin (C), the wife of Staff Sgt. Vernon Martin, and his mother Connie Brown (L) watches his casket being loaded into a hearse outside St. John's Baptist Church after his funeral service on October 19, 2009 in Savannah, Georgia. Martin, 25, of Savannah, died Oct. 3 in Kamdesh, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their contingency outpost with small arms, rocket-propelled grenade and indirect fires. (Photo by Stephen Morton/Getty Images)

[Lossiemouth, Scotland; October 19. Image via Getty]

LOSSIEMOUTH, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 19: A child of one of the 148 members of 12 (Bomber) Squadron holds adults' hands during the soldiers' return from a successful tour of Afghanistan on October 19, 2009 in Lossiemouth, Scotland. The aircrew and ground crew left RAF Lossiemouth on June 14 for a four-and-a-half-month tour in Afghanistan. The deployment consisted of 12 pilots, 12 weapon system operators navigators and 124 ground crew. Based at Kandahar, the Tornado wing was operating in temperatures in excess of 45°C. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

[Rawalpindi, Pakistan; October 18. Image via Getty]

In this picture taken on October 18, 2009, a Pakistani girls peeks out of her house in Rawalpindi, on the outskirts of capital Islamabad. More than 100,000 people have fled South Waziristan, the lawless area on the Afghan border where Pakistan has launched a major ground assault against the Taliban, officials said. AFP PHOTO/ NICOLAS ASFOURI (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

A quick opinion piece in the new New York magazine tries to explain how Hillary rose to such heights:

The sudden Clinton clamor in the media strikes the ear as especially cacophonous in light of how quiet she has been for most of her nine months in her new job. And the sound of silence out of State, in turn, has given rise to a clear conventional wisdom about Hillary's role in Obamaville, which is part of what she was reacting to in her interviews with NBC and ABC this week. The CW, put succinctly, is that Hillary is a virtual nonentity in the administration: that in terms of political status, she ranks in the second tier, and that when it comes to policy sway, she has been out-barked and out-bitten by the pack of alpha dogs that the president has installed around her.

It's easy enough to understand this interpretation of Clinton's standing. After her soap-operatic campaign, the absence of drama around HRC creates cognitive dissonance for the punditocracy and other Beltway tea-leaf readers. Yet the truth is that the conventional wisdom is wrong, I think, in both its particulars and its overall verdict. And not just wrong but illustrative of a set of misapprehensions about how the woman thinks and operates-or, at least, how she's learned to do so, especially with respect to the navigation of new terrain. Indeed, one need only look back as far as her time in the Senate to understand how she now sees and plays the game, and why, on everything from the battle over U.S. policy in Afghanistan to the shaping of her future, she's perfectly likely to win.

Opining that Clinton succeeded in the Senate by "being wonky and learning the ropes", writer John Heilemann sets up the argument that this was all part of Clinton's master plan:

To the outside world, all this laying low has made Clinton look like less of a player. But the reality is almost exactly the opposite. From the outset, Hillary recognized that she could only exercise influence inside the administration if she were trusted by Obama and the people close to him. And although the president himself and Emanuel never had much doubt that she could be a team player, many others in the Obamasphere were supremely skeptical. But no longer. "In terms of loyalty, discretion, and collegiality," says a senior White House official, "she's been everything we could have asked or hoped for."

The unfolding debate over Afghanistan is maybe the most conspicuous example of Hillary's adroitness at working the inside game. Compared with Joe Biden and General Stanley McChrystal, her position has been opaque. But now comes word that Clinton and Gates are lining up on the same side in favor of a middle course in the region-not the full-blown troop surge that the general advocates nor the bare-bones approach that the V.P. favors. By all accounts, the likeliest outcome is that Obama will wind up pursuing the Gates-Clinton split-the-difference. And while no one will ever call it the Hillary doctrine, it will be the kind of quiet win that leads to greater internal power for her in the future.

Playing the inside game works to Clinton's advantage in other ways as well. It's no coincidence, I'd argue, that her popularity has sharply risen in these months when her profile has been lower, when she's been perceived as selflessly working on behalf of her boss. Hillary's greatest political vulnerability has always been the sense among many voters that she is ambition incarnate. That she's forever shimmying up the greasy pole. That everything she does and says is all about her own advancement.

But now Obama has put her in the perfect position to play the good soldier. To say with (almost) a straight face that she's looking forward to retirement, that her White House aspirations are behind her. That all she cares about is doing a good job and serving her new master. And as she does, her approval ratings seem to climb by the day.

By quietly amassing support and power, Clinton established enough a base to start powerfully asserting her opinions and directly challenging her opponents on various subjects. Her comments on the war in Afghanistan show that HRC is about to belt that sacred cow in the mouth:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday the Bush administration never sent enough troops to Afghanistan to defeat the al-Qaida and the Taliban.

In an interview with CNN, Clinton said President George W. Bush and his top advisers were unrealistic about Afghanistan from the invasion in late 2001. She said after skimping on the size of the U.S. force in 2001, the administration then dropped the ball by shifting its focus to Iraq.

Uh-oh, Karl Rove & Co. HRC is back.

And y'all are about to get served.

Poll: Clinton has high job approval [CNN]
Hillary Reborn [New York Magazine]
Hillary Clinton faults Bush on Afghanistan [UPI]

[Balkh, Afghanistan; October 15. Image via Getty]

A woman walks past a German soldier on patrol in Balkh, Afghanistan on October 15, 2009. The soldiers and police are taking part in the Focused District Development (FDD) program where Afghan Police are been trained to take over the responsibilty for security. AFP PHOTO DDP / MICHAEL KAPPELER (Photo credit should read MICHAEL KAPPELER/AFP/Getty Images)

[Kandahar, October 13. Image via Getty]

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - OCTOBER 13: Salima,13, sits in the Mirwais hospital October 13, 2009 Kandahar, Afghanistan. Salima is suffering with burns after she was, along with her sister and mother, was burned when a helicopter fired into their tent according to their father. Three members of the family were killed in the incident. The family belongs to the Kuchi ethnic tribe, nomads living in tents out in the open desert whom are very vulnerable to a war they have little understanding of. Mirwais hospital in Kandahar city is the largest regional hospital in the area, supported by the ICRC and the Afghan government it caters to most of the war wounded in the most hostile part of the country. A recent U.N. report has described 2009 as the deadliest year in terms of civilian casualties in Afghanistan ever since the start of the U.S.-led war against Taliban in the country. In his latest report presented to the Pentagon, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. top commander emphasized the need for winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans. The Taliban are now staging suicide attacks and IED blasts in densely populated areas to create a bigger impact as more of Afghan's war wounded hit the headlines. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

[Kandahar, October 12. Image via Getty]

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - OCTOBER 12: Five-year-old Fatima is held by her mother Sabaro as her daughter recovers from an I.E.D attack where she was hit by shrapnel outside of Kandahar city along the airport road October 12, 2009 Kandahar, Afghanistan. A recent U.N. report has described 2009 as the deadliest year in terms of civilian casualties in Afghanistan ever since the start of the U.S.-led war against Taliban in the country. In his latest report presented to the Pentagon, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. top commander emphasized the need for winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans. The Taliban are now staging suicide attacks and IED blasts in densely populated areas to create a bigger impact as more of Afghan's war wounded hit the headlines. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

[Kabul, October 12. Image via Getty]

An Afghan girl is pictured in the old city of Kabul on October 12, 2009. NATO threw its weight behind the embattled UN mission in Afghanistan, October 12, as a dispute over fraud-tainted elections undermines the organisation's special representative. AFP PHOTO/Massoud HOSSAINI (Photo credit should read MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Arlington, October 8. Image via Getty]

ARLINGTON, VA - OCTOBER 08: (L-R) Major General James L. Perry presents an American flag that covered her father's coffin to five-year-old Grace Allen as she sits in her mother Amy Allen's lap during burial services at Arlington National Cemetery October 8, 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Nekl B. Allen died Sept. 12th in Wardak province, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised-explosive device and small arms fire. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

[Los Angeles, October 7. Image via Getty]

An anti-war protester carries a placard on the eighth anniversary of military action in Afghanistan during a demonstration outside the Federal Building in Los Angeles on October 7, 2009. President Barack Obama moved closer to a crucial decision on the US-led war in Afghanistan after receiving a request from his commander to send in more troops. With the appeal for reinforcements in hand, Obama and his top advisers could start talking about committing yet more troops to the unpopular war later this week after a wide-ranging strategy review, the White House said. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

[Farah Province, Afghanistan; October 6. Image via Getty]

US Marines from 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines listen to a platoon leader before setting off from their base in Farah Province, southern Afghanistan, on October 6, 2009. On the eve of the 8th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan US President Barack Obama continues to deliberate over the sending of thousands more troops to fight the Taliban. AFP PHOTO/DAVID FURST (Photo credit should read DAVID FURST/AFP/Getty Images)

• October 4-11 is Seniors Week in Australia. To celebrate, brothels aligned with Australian Adult Entertainment will offer discounted services to anyone with a seniors' discount card. Wonder if they also offer an early bird special. • According to new research, although women think they don't sleep as well as men, we actually get more sleep on average and are more likely to sleep through the night. They also found that women tend to require more sleep than men. •  A recent study found that breast milk changes in composition throughout the day, and milk collected at night has a higher concentration of sleep-inducing nucleotides. "This made us realize that milk induces sleep in babies," said the lead researcher on the team. • A 21-year-old girl from India disarmed a terrorist leader who had broken into her family's farm house and demanded food and beds for his group of Pakistani militants. After the man attacked her father, she ran out from her hiding place and hit him with an axe, grabbed his AK47 and shot him dead. • Afghanistan is likely to pass the Elimination of Violence Against Women Act, which will allow wives to prosecute their husbands for abuse. But courts hold little power in Afghanistan, and the bill has already been weakened by police and others who insisted its punishments for men be lessened. • John McCain says he's looking forward to reading the part of Sarah Palin's life story where "her selection put us ahead in the polls," but not the part about "disagreements that took place within the campaign." • A new female condom, which costs 30% less than previous versions, will hit Washington-area CVS stores in December. • Elizabeth Smart says her kidnapper Brian David Mitchell raped her daily, and that he was "evil, wicked, manipulative, stinky, slimy, selfish, not spiritual, not religious, not close to God." • Harlan Drake, alleged killer of anti-abortion protester James Pouillon, has been judged incompetent to stand trial, but a judge says that he will likely be competent if he completes treatment. • The person responsible for a Facebook poll asking "should Obama be killed?" turns out to be a child — no charges will be filed against him or his parents. • Women age 35-49 download and listen to more music than any other group, according to new data. Women of all ages were found to visit music websites more often than men. •