Burqa Babes in the Big House: Romeo and Juliet in Kabul
Forced, arranged marriage is a heartbreaking and soul-crushing Islamic reality. Yes, I know: tribal concepts of family honor and Arab desert customs take pride in the fact that they are able to break each individual’s will in the service of the larger good of the family, the clan, the most brutal patriarch, the historical past, and ultimately Allah himself.
Nevertheless, marrying a ten-year-old to her thirty-year-old, illiterate first cousin or to a man old enough to be her grandfather and who already has two wives and grown sons is barbaric and inhuman. Forcing a girl or a boy to marry someone against their will and preventing them from marrying the person of their choice is a crime against the heart. Often, such arranged marriages (and almost all marriages are arranged) include normalized wife-and daughter-in-law beating. The few shelters and jails for battered women and for the intended victims of honor killings in the Muslim world are filled with such stories.
I recently watched an HBO documentary with the catchy title Love Crimes of Kabul. The film takes us inside a woman’s prison in Kabul. The film is surprisingly “light,” given how dark its subject really is. The women in the Badam Bagh prison are commendably feisty. They are surprisingly tough babes in the Big House and their pants-wearing rather butch chief female warden is tougher still. And yet, she still functions as their respected and protective mother figure.
There is much gruff and playful tenderness among the women who bond with each other and fight with each other as if they are “family”; they eat and sleep together in the same room, communally. The all-female and informal atmosphere is that of a harem, a prison, a brothel.
The Burqa Babes are surprisingly, refreshingly brash. They are not ashamed of what they have done. They are also funny; they see the comic dimension in their essentially Kafkaesque situations. They are clowns, ironic, as self-deprecating as they are aggressive. They make us laugh. They are ethnically and racially gorgeous in their diversity. They are from every tribe, every region, and they bear the genetic legacy of every conquering army. The women are hard on each other. Just as I’ve discussed in my book Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman, women internalize the same sexist beliefs that men do and are highly judgmental of other women, often without compassion.
Iranian filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian (kudos to you dear lady!) miraculously managed to get a camera and a crew inside the prison and inside some of the legal hearings. What crimes have the women committed? Apparently half the prison population have dared to fall in love, or are suspected of having done so, or they have dared to have sex before marriage, have run away from home, or rejected an arranged marriage. These are crimes in Afghanistan. (The other half of the prison population are thieves, smugglers, or murderers).
Among the “moral” criminals: One woman was sentenced to four years for having run away with the boy she loved. Another woman, the very spunky Kareema, who looks like an innocent child (many of the inmates do), fell in love, had sex, became pregnant — but the scoundrel who had courted her refused to marry her, which would have doomed Kareema to certain death. What did Kareema do? She turned both herself and her boyfriend in to the police. The only way this cad can now get out of jail is if he marries Kareema, who is very pleased that she has managed to turn her potential murder into an inevitable marriage.
Some husband. His name is Firuz and he says, on camera, “I wish I never met her.”
Kareema is the one who proposed marriage to him. She is a Hazara; Firuz is a Pashtun. The Pushtuns view themselves as a superior caste or tribe—although many Hazaras do not believe in marrying out either. In this case, a “love crime” trumps the internal tribal caste system. Firuz must marry Kareema. How will Firuz and his family punish this upstart Hazara? Kareema’s father says that “she will be their dog, their servant.”
“Nevertheless, marrying a ten-year-old to her thirty-year-old, illiterate first cousin or to a man old enough to be her grandfather and who already has two wives and grown sons is barbaric and inhuman.”
Animals. Nothing but a bunch of medieval animals. And these are our friends, the people we are fighting for? Staying for animals like this was always, always, a mistake. We should have gone into Afghanistan, killed, yes killed (not captured and sent to Guantanamo Bay), as many al Qaeda and Taliban as we could have, and then left. We should have taught those tribal morons what the price for messing with the United States would be and then we should have left. That’s right, we should have left.
People would say, “Well, then we would have had to gone in there again.” My answer would be, “So what?” What would have been cheaper, fight what the British called a “Punitive Expedition,” going in there and killing as many of the enemy as possible, and then leaving, or staying in Afghanistan for over 10 years now? And if we had to go back in for a brief period of time, we would go in. Only this time hit them even harder. And then leave again. Major, hard-hitting, but very brief battles are much, much, cheaper than 10-year occupations. And when we leave Afghanistan in 2014 (or whenever Obama really wants to leave), is Afghanistan really going to be any better than when we got there? Or will Afghanistan simply slide back into the tribal warfare that was taking place when we got there in 2001?
Time to leave. Pick up our toys and go. We will win no “victories” in a dirt hole like Afghanistan. There was that old saying, “Bomb them back into the stone age.” Hard to do that to a country that never really left it.
There is a better way Libertyship46, although even more brutal. Capture and stone to death all the Mullahs, Imams and Ayatollahs as an example to the others. Kill any of the men even suspected of being Islamist, and in so doing, liberate as many of the women and children as possible. They would be better off without their slave-masters, who do none of the necessary or productive work in that society. Set an example for the world that the barbaric, Islamist ideology will not be tolerated by the West and that it will be stamped out wherever it exists or comes into conflict with civilized peoples. Then leave with the overhanging threat that if such a despicable practice should ever again rear its ugly head… we will come back and do an even more thorough job. Sound bigoted?… So be it.
Agree with you one 100%! For 4 planes I would have destroyed 4 cities – one of them being mecca or medina. If they act up again – do it again. But no more nation building!
Makes sense to me!
Better to not go in at all, just bomb them real good for a few weeks and call it a day. Unfortunately, certain unnamed people want us to build nations everywhere because then they will become a democracy. Just plain silly, stupid and dangerous.
And yet our media still portrays Islam as a peaceful “religion,” and delights in finding anything evil they can pin on Christians and Jews.
Since the 1950′s Afghan women have been systematically robbed of everything. They have been isolated and confined to ignorance, so they don’t know or realize the real cause of their plight. A kind of mushroom management of keeping them in the dark.
This is a country that has grown steadily towards the preferance of males over and above females. The females are now regulated to a lowly status of only being necessary for their baby producing abilities.
It is common for Afghan males to think, discuss and treat females as objects of ridicule and disgust. They are openly acknowledged as being like domestic animals, but worse. Therefore they are forced to wear the burka in order not to offend the eyes of men and to help keep men in the ‘natural’ order of males prefering men over women and to reduce temptation or to elimate competition.
Therefore any educated women is seen as a frightening threat to their monopoly of perversity.
To the moderators:
You may continue to reject printing my comments. But you will NEVER be able to prevent the facts and the truth from coming out.
Your efforts are a waste of time. This decision has been made, from far above you. Why do you swim upstream against yourself?
I don’t think there are many ‘mods’ here so it takes them time, waterwillows. I know it can be frustrating going through the moderation process, but, don’t give up on posting!
Agree with Liberty, instead of invading these sh*tholes we need to utterly destroy them, so much destruction that they are too busy trying to survive that the won’t even think about attacking us for at least two generations. After that each time one of their politico’s or miltary raise their heads we blow them off, no mercy, utter and totally destruction of their infrastructure, let Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabi’s rebuild for them, keep our money here at home.
Additonally offer nice bounties on the heads of their various organizations, literally, say cut of the head and bring it to us and we’ll pay you….
Doc: Douchebagistan:
Finally an author I enjoy on Pajamas
I like the work Bush,his wife Laura, and Condi Rice started with the women of Afghanistan. There are now DV shelters, a hospital and many economic development projects. But this country can no longer afford to continue because we do not demand payment. Instead we do the stupid drug war crap in a country that grows popies. We should develop the natural resources, tax them and pay the US for what it spends there. Do the same in every country including the even bigger s88thole of Pakistan. Instead we dump our SS money into these countries expecting only secret support in return. Tax them for our values and development.
It only boils down to one, the source of all the evil thing is their Hate book the koran. If they can’t change it, We can’t. The only resolved in there is to exterminate the source.
OMG! Phyllis Chesler is back! Welcome back, Phyllis!
I recently watched this movie on DVD and I am planning on watching it with my daughter when she comes to stay visit me this Sunday.
It’s so scary to realize there is a whole different ‘world’ out there that is so backwards, primal, ignorant and EVIL to the core. And the ‘women’ jailers were SCARY and just as bad. UGH! I teared up through many parts of the documentary.
I hope all is well with you, Phyllis.
((Hugs)),
Delia
Two paws up!
A treasure to read. Thanks, Dr. Chesler.
Seeing what life is like in Afghanistan will hopefully make more people question what in the world the US accomplishes by being there — spending trillions of dollars on both the military and private contractors. Does our government think that by changing the standard of living we will change the Muslim mindset? Look at Europe and the UK. Any change in the Muslim mindset there? Submission is still the objective.
I don’t know the real reason why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan. I do know that our military are DELIBERATELY made to suffer. American and British military have to follow ROE (Rules of Engagement) that FAVOR Muslim terrorists. American and British military are being killed by Muslim terrorists because of it. Recently in the UK Daily Mail, the tragic story of a British soldier was told by his weeping widow. The soldier had told his family he was terribly worried he was going to lose his life (and worried that his fellow soldiers were also going to lose their lives) because of the Rules of Engagement. Shortly after he was killed because of ROE.
Some of our military heroes are in Leavenworth military jail – jailed for many years because they committed the “crime” of defending themselves from Muslim terrorists. Eternal shame on our government for their wickedness.
UK and American governments don’t care. Our brave military are HATED. Muslim terrorists are LOVED. And no, it is NOT political correctness.
I am happy to see your writing back at PJM, Phyllis- always been a fan
A lawyer advises: “A bad husband is better than no husband.” The women understand and accept this as their lot in life.
For women in the West, NO husband is definitely better than a bad husband. It is also better for the children as a bad husband is generally a bad father.
I LOVE our superior Western civilization!
Freedom is BEAUTIFUL!
Here is the link to the article I mentioned. Read the heartbreaking article and weep for our military.
UK DAILY MAIL
Soldier killed after Army bosses barred him from opening fire on Taliban insurgents planting roadside bombs
9th July 2011
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘The whole point of a counter insurgency operation is to protect the civilian population.’ He said soldiers had to go through a series of stages before opening fire and were sometimes asked to exercise ‘courageous restraint’ even when shots had been fired.
‘It is all about winning hearts and minds and using the least force possible,’ the spokesman said.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012664/Soldier-Peter-Rayner-killed-Army-bosses-stopped-opening-onTaliban.html
UK — and US soldiers-under the same rotten suicidal Rules of Engagement are being maimed and murdered so that we can win hearts and minds? Protecting the lives of Taliban is regarded as far more important than the lives of our brave military who are considered expendable. Bring our military home now and stop forcing our heroes to die for Islam.
Rest in peace, hero, Sergeant Rayner, and all of you brave heroes who fought bravely and gave your lives.
I’ve listened to your comments and think you have pretty good points that need to be repeated to people that can actually make a difference in our foreign policy in the we deal with some of these folks. Well, they’ve probably heard all of this before and had nothing to lose by ignoring it, like votes.
This is a very disturbing situation with Islam/Muslims. I’ll start by saying that I have not read the Koran cover-to-cover, but what I have read seems to be appropriate and fitting for the time, the time being 1600 years ago. It is very unfortunate that Islam has not evolved with the rest of humanity. They still believe and practice completely outdated concepts and it seems that will never change. While I am against killing, this (Islam) needs to be stopped at any cost. I don’t claim to have the answers, but allowing Islam/Muslims into a ‘western’ society is only asking for trouble and plenty of it. A Muslims only mission in life is to conquer and reign supreme over non muslims, and we are allowing it to happen to ourselves. The sooner that we all realize and act upon the fact that Islam is a filthy, vile ‘religion’ that has absolutely no place in a modern world, the better off we all will be. While everyone had the right to believe whatever he/she chooses, they need to keep their dogma on a leash. just my $.02
steven goodwin: why do you concede that islam was appropriate for the 7th century? was murder, robbery, rape, pedophilia, and genocide ok for those ignorant 7th centurians, but not for us? when has murder, pedophilia, robbery, rape and genocide ever been appropriate? it is dhimmmis like you that are enabling the conquest of the world by the blood dripping disciples of the god of evil. real world, dude. murder, genocide, rape, robbery, and pedophilia have never been appropriate, even if committed by a “religion” with good pr ensured by our criminal media. never. not even in the liberal dhimmi, surrender world of today. if you approve of the crime called islam at any time, then you are as criminal as the “prophet”, the greatest arch-criminal of all time.
Glad to read Ms. Chesler’s work again.
I remember when Louis Farrakhan referred to Judaism as a “gutter religion”! The reality is – that all religions are from the gutter – their sole purpose is to keep you enslaved and in fear. To subjugate all women, Islam is the worst – it is a sewer religion/political system!!
You are correct. All religions end up in the gutter. Didn’t Jesus chastised the Pharisees, the religious zealots of his time, for not only not entering the kingdom of heaven themselves – Self realization, enlightenment – but for also preventing others from doing so?
That said, however, for whatever backwardness or present unimportance some religions have, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, or Christianity, none of them compare, in brutality, mayhem, intolerance, and evilness, to Islam. For this religion founded by a madman murderer is verily an incarnation of darkness on this earth.