Writing Poetry in Kabul

Like Reading Lolita in Tehran, it's an act of defiance that can get a chick killed.

Gotta love that sharia!

For a more, ahem, nuanced view, here's a Western chick writing on the HuffPo site who's a "Doctoral Candidate, Middle Eastern Studies "--so you know she's super smart. She says we shouldn't rely on the testimony of "native informants"--her term--such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji and Mona Eltahawy. Apparently, it is "emotional and sensationalist" and does "little to deepen our understanding of the contexts and conditions shaping women's oppression in Arab countries today."

Ah, yes--the contexts. They are so much more crucial than those over-emotional and untrustworthy "native informants" (a notion which, in another context, might be deemed both sexist and racist).