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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Picture of the Day


(Local people watch two Afghan women shot and killed by Taliban in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, on Sunday, July 13, 2008. Taliban fighters told Associated Press Television News that the two were executed for allegedly running a prostitution ring catering to U.S. soldiers and other foreign contractors at a U.S. base in Ghazni city. (AP/Rahmatullah Naikzad))

posted by mikevotes at 8:13 AM

8 Comments:

  • Just a more graphic version of what happened to the 'DC madam' Jean Palfrey. Funny, same consequence but one incident happens under an authoritarian fundamentalist government and... well I'd just repeat myself.

    By Blogger matt, at 10:42 AM  

  • Fair comparison Matt. At least the Taliban are up front about it.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:24 AM  

  • I recognize your point as a joke, and alot of the pictures are meant for that purpose, but that was hardly what I was after here.

    I was looking more at the complex realities of the war zone.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:35 PM  

  • Not really very complex. The Taliban decided to make a public example of two women who were running a brothel catering to foreigners. Assuming they were guilty. It's a harsh punishment but that's the way things are in that part of the world. I suppose the photographer was invited along to get maximum press coverage.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:47 PM  

  • But, would they be running a brothel if the Americans weren't there, if the Afghani economy hadn't been torn up?

    And what about the cultural complexities of running a brothel for foreign soldiers? How does that inform one on a foreign culture?

    Then, of course, there is the cultural element going the other way of two women hauled off and executed by an armed religious group.

    I get it. It's not that I'm shocked. It just seemed an unusual cultural nexus between US, Afghani laity, and Taleban/religious extremists.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 2:19 PM  

  • I understand prostitution has increased dramatically especially in Kabul. Girls are brought in from China and I expect there are lots of local women who need the money. Soldiers and prostitution seem to go together. Same sort of thing happened in Vietnam and Thailand during the Vietnam war. I don't know much about the Taliban but they seem like a conservative bunch and they have their own way of dealing with what they regard as immorality.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:40 PM  

  • Yeah, it's very common in all wars. I just wonder how that shapes opinion of the foreign country.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 3:43 PM  

  • My comparison of the Afghani women executed while working to feed their families and of Jean Palfrey was not completely a joke.

    Societies, affluent or poor, have the same ills when the simplistic and fundamentalist elements are in power.

    These women were killed by moral edict, Jean Palfrey was killed for exposing the hypocrisy of the moralistic and righteous.

    No matter what they all were slaughtered by a power hungry male hierarchy.

    By Blogger matt, at 5:39 PM  

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