Here in Spokane, men have been known to mark a friendship with the gift of a pen inscribed with one simple word: Viagra.

Turns out men the world over are equally fascinated by that little word. During the holiday season, the Washington Post reported that the CIA manages to influence aging tribal leaders in Afghanistan with the discreet gift of a handful of those little blue pills. They’re the perfect bribe because they’re consumed out of public view. Enemies aren’t likely to notice the evidence and suspect the leader of American ties.

It’s difficult to imagine a single gift so coveted by female political leaders around the world.

It’s not likely that Somali pirates, say, or Chinese spies are dreaming up similar ways to influence Washington’s top women leaders. Besides, Gov. Chris Gregoire, Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Mayor Mary Verner can phone Walgreens for their own tubes of Retin-A. They can drive to Nordstrom themselves for a cashmere scarf or a pair of Uggs.

But should the CIA desire greater cooperation from the women of Afghanistan, the country’s desperate poverty stands in sharp contrast.

Afghan women struggle with some of the most dramatic gender disparities in the world. According to the United Nations, more than 80 percent of Afghan women are illiterate. They have the second highest rate of death during childbirth and a life expectancy of only 44.

In 2004, Afghan women had an average of 7.4 children each. They endured severe oppression and violence during the years of the Taliban rule, and an estimated 1 million of them are now widows.

In November, 10 Taliban militants were arrested for spraying acid on girls walking to school in Kandahar. The Taliban prohibited girls from attending school in 1996 to 2001.

Since the Taliban was overthrown, Afghan women have slowly gained a bit of political power. They fill 27 percent of the seats in the National Assembly. Nearly 60 percent of students in teacher training programs in 2005 were women. The country has one female governor, Habiba Sarabi, in the province of Bamiyan.

The CIA could certainly influence a powerful Afghan woman by providing college scholarships for her daughters or health care for her family. Nothing could more effectively save the lives of women than better prenatal care, more trained midwives and improved contraceptive services. All of that would likely sway a woman’s loyalty.

But nothing is as simple, or so ironic, as that vial of little blue pills.

Medical researchers haven’t perfected a similar treatment for the female sex drive. Nor is it certain that such a drug would spark the imagination of women around the world in quite the same way Viagra has for men.

In Afghanistan, the effects of the male libido often have brought pain rather than pleasure to the lives of women.

Failing to devise any better ideas, the CIA might be reduced to bribing Afghan women with dark chocolate or boxes of estrogen patches.

The search for a single bribe, able to bring women of a certain age to a state of ecstasy, goes on.

Here’s one clue. Around the world, female leaders are often in the same stages of life as powerful men. Gov. Gregoire served as a mother of the bride when her older daughter married last summer. Murray and Verner both have grandchildren.

In the U.S., perhaps only one commodity is both linked to the long-term side effects of a healthy supply of testosterone and known for reliably delighting older women: Videos of the grandbabies.

Chinese spies should take note. This single product is guaranteed to make an American grandmother swoon.

But there’s a far more powerful gift in Afghanistan: Giving a woman the chance to live long enough to meet her grandchildren at all.