Jezebel 
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New York, 5:25 AM
Sat Nov 21
67 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/20/09
11/20/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
Zanobia's Coat
Septima Zanobia, the beautiful martial queen, governed Syria in the 3rd century, exquisite fabrics draping in the date-scented wind as she rode to victory, conquering Claudius and reclaiming Egypt, her fertile birthright.
Zanobia employed an army of blind weavers, whose lack of sight translated into unparalleled craftsmanship. I explored the sensual twists and turns of their local bazaar and commissioned this coat from their youngest descendants - 12 year old boys with tiny fingers that weave mystical fabrics fit for a modern-day empress.
Zanobia the Mystical Coat (No. 4500). Heaviest goat's wool with distinctive floral and silk embellishment. A cacophony of color. Simply splendid.
Accessorize with a man's skull hanging from your fingers, or take a page from Zanobia's later years and marry off your daughter to your enemy to ensure a peaceful future. Wear this anywhere, and you're sure to do a little diplomacy of your own.
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/16/09
2. What a nice counterpart to the whole CIA giving Afghanistan men Viagra. I wonder if the CIA got permission from any women in Afghanistan before they started handing out those pills.
3. I believe that there are a certain number of people in any given population who are going to be Super Religious. I would include that these people are a bit ridiculous about it, but then I don't believe in god and who am I to judge. So let's say the number is 10%; that means that 10% of Catholics won't use condoms, 10% of Jews don't do ANY work on the Sabbath, 10% of Muslims pray five times a day. Etc. Whatever the extreme-ish form of religious rule following, that percentage of people are going to do it.
Everyone else will just do what they want regardless. So all the Catholics I know use birth control (all of them), even some priests are pro-condoms; I know exactly one Jew who is hardcore about not working on the Sabbath (actually he's my friend's dad), everyone else follows the religion's rules to varying degrees--some eat bacon, some refuse to have pork or cheeseburgers, etc. It's all the same idea, really, that a smallish percent of the population is going to be dedicated enough to their religion to let it get in the way of the rest of their life, and most of the world will justify or ignore or live in denial or whatever. I'm guessing that Afghanistan is the same way. These women who are jumping for joy at BCP? I bet they're Muslim. And I bet they consider themselves religious and good people and stuff. But when it comes to pushing 17 babies out of your lady bits, god takes a back seat to practicality when the issue is so abstract. Very few Jews who keep kosher would refuse to eat shellfish if they were stuck on a desert island and had to choose between oysters and starvation.
So if religion were ruling their lives enough to justify giving men one more way of controlling women's bodies, I'm going to guess that it really affects about the same percentage of Catholics who don't have sex before marriage. Everything else is just down to availability and cultural practices more than religion. But even cultural practices will get pushed aside in a country with the second highest mortality rate for women giving birth. #reproductivejustice
11/16/09
I always wonder how God's work would go down if men were the ones going through pregnancy and labor. I wonder if sex would be any less sacred then. #reproductivejustice
11/16/09
11/16/09
Sierra Leone has the highest maternal death rate at 2,000, and Afghanistan has the second highest maternal death rate at 1900 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, reported by the UN based on 2000 figures.
I suppose when women are considered brood mares, their individual lives don't have much value. As you said, not dissimilar from here... #reproductivejustice
11/16/09
11/16/09
1. Yes, it's unfortunate, but these organizations realize that they MUST go through men in order to help women. Do you know what would happen if they attempted to go directly to women (assuming they could, which they pretty much can't)? It would be chaos. They would be seen as trying to undermine the power and family structure of the community.
2. Even in the United States, there are women who voluntarily forgo birth control and sexual education (for themselves and their offspring) because they believe their religion does not condone controlling their own reproduction.
Yeah. Because they don't condone it. For all intents and purposes they expressly condemn it. So there's that. #reproductivejustice
11/16/09
11/11/09
[www.washingtonpost.com]
Fuck. #veteransday
11/05/09
Second thought: Huh. I wonder if the state of the poster is meta-commentary on the potential length of Karzai's political career. #afghanistanelection
11/04/09
11/04/09
Please come home Capt. Baby Izzie needs to know you better. #camplejeune
11/04/09
Good luck guys. #camplejeune