What Ever Happened to Yvonne Ridley after capture by the Taliban?

It reads like a bad novel based on the stockholm syndrome- woman captured by the Taliban; two and half years later she converts to Islam, except, 'In the Hands of the Taliban: Her Extraordinary Story', is the true tale of the very controversial British journalist Yvonne Ridley. Here's an interview about her converting.

What impressed Ridley more than anything else is the sisterhood among Muslim women. "They are always helping each other in matters such as childcare, fundraising and studying. They want each other to do well. I hadn't expected this. In the west were all too busy pinching each other's boyfriends, and criticizing each other's clothes or weight."
read rest here

As for those of us who hem and haw about the burqa, hijab, niqab, veil, call it what you will and give our lofty opinions on whether it's a symbol of oppression, repression, aggression, suppression or liberation here is Yvonne's essay on wearing a head covering in 21st century Britain.

Some young Muslim feminists consider the hijab and the nikab political symbols, too, a way of rejecting Western excesses such as binge drinking, casual sex and drug use. What is more liberating: being judged on the length of your skirt and the size of your surgically enhanced breasts, or being judged on your character and intelligence? In Islam, superiority is achieved through piety -- not beauty, wealth, power, position or sex.
read rest here

here is a review of 'In the Hands of the Taliban'
here are amazon reviews of Yvonne's novel 'Ticket to Paradise'
here is an Al-Jazeera interview from 2004.

PS. why do you think Al- Jazeera fired Yvonne?

William Dalrymple's The Last Mughal

The Last Mughal, continues the story I began in White Mughals - the story of the fast-changing relationship between the British and the Indians, and especially Muslim Indians - in the late 18th and the mid-19th century writes author William Dalrymple in his essay for the New Statesman. Mesmerizing in its details, I found White Mughals a rewarding and important read. Fiona Atherton's review of The Last Mughal promises this to be an equal.

To a historian, it is surely Dalrymple's painstaking research, his use not only of British sources, but of never-before-translated Persian and Urdu texts, Indian eyewitness accounts and official records, which render this work groundbreaking and long overdue. Finally, a history emerges which is truly 'new', and which challenges 150 years of British teaching. Impressive as this is, the non-historian's admiration is of a different kind. As a revered travel writer as well as historian, Dalrymple's Delhi, the city which he discovered at 18 and which has "haunted and obsessed" him ever since, is tangibly depicted.
read here

ps. the portrait is of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last mughal.

America Yawns; Switches on Dancing with the Stars

As if the threat of international terrorism wasn't enough of a reason to spend sleepless nights, now this turning of America into what it was not. Brings to mind Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' about a world in which America is a totalitarian state. Not so surreal. It can happen here, and it is, and we're yawning because, ya know, it can't happen here.

Then They Came For Me
by
Stephen F. Rohde, Esq.

First they came for the Muslims, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.

Then they came to detain immigrants indefinitely solely upon the certification of the Attorney General, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an immigrant.

Then they came to eavesdrop on suspects consulting with their attorneys, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a suspect.

Then they came to prosecute non-citizens before secret military commissions, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a non-citizen.

Then they came to enter homes and offices for unannounced "sneak and peek" searches, and I didn't speak up because I had nothing to hide.

Then they came to reinstate Cointelpro and resume the infiltration and surveillance of domestic religious and political groups, and I didn't speak up because I had stopped participating in any groups.

Then they came for anyone who objected to government policy because it aided the terrorists and gave ammunition to America's enemies, and I didn't speak up because...... I didn't speak up.

Then they came for me....... and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Stephen Rohde, a constitutional lawyer and President of the ACLU of Southern California, is indebted to the inspiration of Rev. Martin Niemoller (1937).

Mukhtar Mai and President Musharraf's Memoirs

A hero can come from the unlikeliest of places and Mukhtar Mai is one such hero. Already awed by her courage, watching her accept the Glamour 2005 Woman of the Year Award, I was doubly awed at her humility and simplicity. Just as awe inspiring are Muktar Mai's family for suporting rather than stifling her as well as all the people, men, women, Pakistani, non-Pakistani, who've worked to make sure her story is told and heard.
Mukhtar Mai's 'In the Name of Honor: A Memoir', published in twenty languages, is finally going to be available in the US on October 31st (halloween, but no symbolism shall be read therein). Mukhtar Mai's memoir as well as Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf's recent memoir 'In the Line of Fire' have the same US publisher so I suppose comparisons between promotion and sales etc... will be made. But both memoirs are vastly different. President Musharraf's is a political memoir while Mukhtar Mai's a memoir of politics. President Musharraf's is about running Pakistan and Mukhtar Mai''s about living in it. Perhaps they should be read together since the President has stipulated rape is a means by which women like Mukhtar Mai are afforded an opportunity to immigrate.
ps. does any one know if an Urdu translation is in the works?

Booker Prize 2006- Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai's wonderful, wonderful novel The Inheritance of Loss wins the 2006 Booker Prize. Me heart be gladeth coz I was rooting for this unput-downable read which spans India, America, and colonialism pre, post, and future of the heart, the mind and the unbreakable spirit. Here's a video interview with Kiran and a review of the novel.