First, Facebook. Now, Twitter. Just go the extra mile, Pakistan. Ban the Internet. Ban movies. Ban every book that isn't the Koran. Ban all modes of behavior that aren't already explicitly modeled by a 7th-century illiterate pedophilic warlord.

Good luck with that.

On April 2, 2012, I delivered the keynote address at the launch of the journal of the Political Science Students' Association of the University of British Columbia. It was a well organized, brief event with a good Q&A session, and I'm grateful to the Association for the opportunity to respond to one of the articles featured in this year's journal, "Feminist Ethics and the Rhetoric Surrounding Women and the War in Afghanistan," by Allison Rounding. A detailed response to the content of that article can be found here, and you can read Rounding's article here. Meanwhile, here is the transcript of the keynote address.

Good afternoon and congratulations to the students who have worked so hard to produce UBC’s Journal of Political Studies.

I’m speaking to you today in my role as an aid worker in Afghanistan, but I’m also a student, at least for another couple of months, here at UBC, and a dozen or so years ago now when I started my university studies, I minored in Political Science at McGill University.

It’s been fascinating since then to go out in the field, and see how the theories of the classroom resonate, or don’t, in many cases. I’ve tried to keep one foot in scholarship and one in practice for as long as I’ve implicated myself in this work, and these two worlds often clash, but they also often also produce opportunities to innovate and test out theories in the real world, and they’ve helped keep me grounded academically, I hope.

But I came to Afghanistan not from a scholarly interest, but from a crisis of conscience.

Will the "anti-imperialist, anti-war" types at least acknowledge that the Syrian regime is guilty of widespread atrocities, even if they won't lift a finger to prevent it?

An increasingly common medical note written by a Syrian doctor and stamped by the Ministry of Health.

"To Whom It May Concern:
I have reviewed the case of _______, the daughter of Hassan, on Wednesday, date _______.  She was suffering from bruising and tears along the posterior vaginal wall, along with tears in the anal sphincter.  These injuries were the result of a sexual rape. A surgical procedure was done repairing the wall of the vagina and the sphincter. She is now in the hospital recuperating.
Signed, Surgical consultant. This report was written free from duress.

They're raping little 11-year old boys, too.

Nadia Khoury is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist

By blowing up their convoy in Khan Sheikhun.

Not to cut the Syrian regime any slack, but the "Allah Ackbar!" shouting types in the crowd don't exactly inspire a lot of empathy.

Why not? Well, the rebels haven't nearly won this fight yet, but the extermination and eviction of Syria's Christians by jihadists has already begun in earnest.

There are no good guys left in this fight.

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist

Woman wearing a dress, bad. Beating and stoning woman wearing a dress, good.

"We must abide by the teachings of our Islamic religion, which calls on women to cover up their charms and abide by the veil imposed on Muslim women. I'm against calls for women to reveal their charms, and that must be countered firmly and with stricter protection of morality," the commenter wrote.

Morality, yes. We're all very concerned about morality.

H/T Blazing Cat Fur

Nice to see that the UK is combining austerity measures with job retraining programs. This will provide employment opportunities to those poor folks who haven't been integrated well into the modern economy.

This is what political correctness in the UK has created: social workers and police who will go out of their way to avoid doing their jobs, while a rape gang assaults their young victims again and again and again and again for two years -- for fear of being branded racists.

A 15-year old girl told the police she'd been raped in 2008. The police did not investigate or press charges and the gang went on to rape dozens of others. On one night, a girl was raped by 20 of these monsters (which begs the question: why was the court only dealing with nine defendants? Are the others already in jail or walking free thanks to more police bungling?).

As the judge in the Liverpool Crown Court case sentenced the guilty men, he said, 'All of you treated (the victims) as though they were worthless and beyond respect.

'One of the factors leading to that was the fact that they were not part of your community or religion."

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO. "Why is freedom unbearable? Because a passage in a novel I like says so. And that's why I have to keep my 9.5 million slaves under my heel. Don't even try to argue with Dostoevsky, because he's an awesome writer and he's dead. And don't argue with me or you'll be dead."

I love it when dictators speak honestly about why they do what they do. They always come off as moronic dickheads.

When an Islamic school in Canada is caught equating Jews to Nazis in its curriculum -- and a number of other lurid associations are discovered by the ensuing spotlight -- there's only one thing for the head of the school to do: deny, deny, deny.

Get the story over at Blazing Cat Fur: Maulana Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi: The Sargent Schultz Of Shia

Vancouver-area supporters: Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Vancouver Chapter and the Surrey Teachers Status of Women Committee invite you to an Afternoon withan Afternoon with Christopher Alexander and Hedvig Alexander. 

Christopher Alexander was Canada’s first resident Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 – 2005. Between 2005 and 2009 he served as  Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. 

Hedvig  Christine  Alexander  spent seven years in Afghanistan working in international development where she established the Peace Dividend Trust. In 2009, after moving to Canada she launched Jali Designs, a new line of contemporary fashion accessories and homewares from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

Location:

Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, 5251 Oak Street, Vancouver

Itinerary:

12:30 pm. Meet and Greet Reception, Marketplace and Book Signing
2 pm Speakers

Tickets are $20.

Reservations are recommended. Tickets may be purchased thru http://cw4wafghan-vancouver.eventbrite.ca or by calling (604)299-2546