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Slate offers a remarkable photo essay under the headline "Violent Femmes" of Taliban members in Afghanistan compiled by Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak. He didn't take the photos, but discovered them in passport photo shops in Kandahar that reopened after the downfall of the Taliban there.

Dworzak explains in the video that some misunderstood the remarkably foppish poses when they were first published by Magnum. "I got a lot of criticism in Europe from the liberal PC left who found it 'demeaning' for me to make them look like that. Hey. They chose to look like that."

The photos had to be taken surreptitiously during Taliban rule because images of people were forbidden.

Interviews included with the slide show offer several explanations for the poses, including this:

There is a very strong homosexual tradition in which an older man will adopt a young man and become lover cum student and teach him whatever skills he may have... Given the long-standing tradition of this in southern Afghanistan, it continued, but it was then done surreptitiously because the Taliban had very strong rules about it.

This essay offers an interesting counterpoint to a CNN report by Christiane Amanpour called God's Warriors. Last night's installment of the three-part series looked at "God's Muslim Warriors". There was no suggestion in the report that images like those found by Dworzak might be chosen by some of the warriors.

AfterElton reviews tonight's installment of the series [6 pm PT], "God's Christian Warriors", that focuses on US evangelical groups:

If looked at through the prism of understanding what the religious right wants for America, however, then the documentary can be considered a success if even only a few Americans -- especially gay ones -- wake up to what these Christian fundamentalists aspire to. And for anyone paying attention for the last twenty years, no explanation is needed as to what it is the religious fundamentalists want for America.

As God?s Christian Warriors makes amply clear, their goal is an America that is governed by biblical principles; principles that leave no room for gay people to co-exist in any meaningful way except by going deeply back in to the closet.

This video from GodTube, a fundamentalist copy of YouTube, makes frighteningly clear how how seriously some take the war part of all that and how some of them would like to get to where they want to be:


It's not known if some of these warriors might sport black eye-shadow in private moments.

Labels: link bites, religion