The Phyllis Chesler Organization
Last month, I met so many wonderful people at the Italian government conference in Rome. One such being is Bruce Bawer, an American writer who lives in Norway and who has published many influential works including While Europe Slept and Surrender. Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom. We had a drink, got on famously, one thing quickly led to another and, soon enough, he'd asked me to write a monthly column for Human Rights Service, an online publication which appears in Norwegian and English. Bruce is the soul of cheerful generosity and I look forward to someday touring a fjord or two in his company. Here is the first piece I wrote for him and for the two Norwegian women who publish the site, Hege Storhaug and Rita Karlsen. A Lesson Learned in Kabul by Phyllis Chesler Pajamas Media October 27, 2009 http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2009/10/27/a-lesson-learned-in-kabul/ Send Comment RSS Share: Excerpt: Once, long ago, I was held captive in Kabul, Afghanistan. Yes, I went there of my own free will, but I was only 20 years old and in love with my college sweetheart – a sophisticated, modern man with whom I discussed Dostoevsky, Strindberg, Sartre, Ibsen, de Sica, Truffaut, Fellini, and Simone Signoret. We were both theatre and movie buffs, and although my future husband had been born in Afghanistan, he had attended high school and college in America. When we landed in Kabul, my American passport was confiscated and I discovered, for the first time, that my father-in-law had three wives and twenty-one children. I had flown right into the Middle Ages. I soon learned that I was expected in live in purdah—a rather posh version of an all-female life at home, with trips to female relatives and to the tailor. If one survives such a grand and dangerous adventure, one learns some important lessons. Read the complete original version of this item...
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