Owing to the pandemic and other calamities, many referred to 2020 as a “biblical year.”

Now, however, it is starting to look like we are in a “biblical decade.” Between the floods in Western Europe, the wildfires in Greece and Turkey and the delta and mu variants of COVID-19, our planet and traditional way of life are coming increasingly under pressure.

Yet nothing this year can compare to the tragedy that is being visited upon Afghanistan’s 19 million women. While those of us in advanced economies contemplate the excesses of our modern society, Afghan women face an acute threat of being plunged back into the dark ages.