I thought this was a very interesting read from a Pakistani lawyer concerning the Taliban:
[i]The Enemy Within
Monday, April 06, 2009
Sameer Khosa
There was a news item, not so long ago, about women not being able to work in lingerie shops in Saudi Arabia. According to the logic employed, women were not supposed to work and hence that extended to working in lingerie shops. The ironic consequence of that move was that in a society where men and women are not allowed to even be in physical proximity in public, women ended up having to buy their most intimate undergarments from men only.
On Friday a video aired about the Taliban ?administering justice? to a 17-year-old girl accused of having illicit relations with a man. One man held her face down and held her arms, while the other flogged her buttocks with a stick. So, it?s not okay for women to be touched by male doctors, or male companions, but male executioners can hold hands and slap bottoms in front of milling crowds? The Taliban, it seems, have a thing for kink.
Apparently, one of the Taliban spokesmen said the girl had received a ?lenient? sentence. Last time I checked, it took two, at least, to have illicit relations. If the girl?s sentence was lenient, one has to wonder what must have happened to the poor boy! Oh, wait ? there is no boy in the video. Apparently, only girls must be punished for their libido. Boys, after all, become men when they can ?tap that.? Take that for a specimen of modern thinking that gangs from Brooklyn can be proud of. Needless to say, unless one is a glutton for punishment ? one should not ask for ?leniency? from the Taliban.
There is something sinister at work here. There is an unacceptable cruelty disguised as spirituality that is eating away at the fabric of our country and society. There has been a slow, steady, sustained hijacking of concepts of nobility in our religion to use them as tools of repression, oppression and fear. It is the logic and hypocrisy of the Taliban when they punish only girls and not boys for the same act of ?immorality,? under the guise of Islam.
It is the logic which says that televisions and videos should be banned, except when their spokesman has to give an interview, or the immoral women have to be given a dose of their version of Islam. It is the logic which prohibits vulgarity and obscenity to protect our morality, but circulates videos of beheadings and shootings to young children to show them the world in its complete and total horror.[/i]
Full article:
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=170982