Crossing the Wire
Page 24
Notes
1. This is an Israeli martial art meant to provide an advantage to someone with a smaller and weaker frame.
2. It is thought that the Kuchi people are ethnically Pashtun and do not share the Rom bloodline of Gypsies elsewhere worldwide. However, even in apparent genetic and cultural isolation, their lifestyle and attitudes about their social place is similar to the Rom almost to the point of being exact.
3. The Liturgical Studies concentration had a bent toward art and culture and history, and it was there that I found my unexpected home. I also found friendships with professors and classmates whose unpretentiousness and brilliance I will admire for the rest of my life. To each, with happy remembrances of nights at Fiddler’s Hearth and Bridget’s, my love and thanks. I also wish to extend my deepest admiration and gratitude to Michael and Marianne O’Shaughnessy, whose support of the preservation of Penitente art and culture have made them an unforgettable part of my life and of the life and story of all New Mexicans.
4. I have never had any athletic talent or inclination whatsoever. I can’t run fast. What I discovered about myself through running, however, is that I am blindly determined. In those days, I could run crazy distances because I kept putting one foot ahead of the other, despite my better judgment. After reading a book about Dean Karnazes, I completed the Marine Corps Marathon and the Marine Corps 10K together in a day for a 50K “ultra” run, and completed a second 50K the same week to help my office team from the FBI in a distance competition. Depressingly, we came in second.
5. To Swamp Ass, Dust Bunny, Popeye, Dirty Old Man, and those who can’t be mentioned because they didn’t have silly nicknames, my thanks.
6. After my parents’ separation, Mom wasn’t in a position to take charge of the care-giving situation—especially given my Grandmother’s particular and inexplicable dislike of her. Her efforts to help were always rejected to the point that she assisted with stealth—always trying to send home-made meals and fresh sheets, but almost never being seen. I didn’t have any siblings who could step in, so I needed to return home a find a solution.
7. Having given away my first watch, my options were limited to what the big PX in Kandahar carried. This watch was the only one small enough to fit, but it was clearly a “girlfriend gift,” meant to be sent back home.
8. Available through the ERIC database at http://www.eric.ed.gov/
9. op cit
10. Archive available at http://www.afghan-web.com/culture/jokes.html
11. Archive available at http://www.virtualafghan.com/fun
12. In addition to HTT interviews, see “Searching for Comedy in the Muslim World: Reflections of a Harvard Joke Collector” at http://www.wrmea.com/archives/Jan_Feb_2009/0901035. html
13. Paper available at http://slavic.princeton.edu/download/files/Justine%20Gill.pdf
14. The HTT program, interestingly, is the first to literally close the “collector-analyst gap” for which the U.S. intelligence community has been criticized since the events of 9/11, by simply putting the same person in both roles. Despite its obvious problems, it is one sure way of solving communication issues between the two! I find myself talking to myself all the time.
15. Nevertheless, this work remains an informal paper written in a deployed field environment with the limited open-source resources available and without access to an academic library. The Human Terrain System’s Research Reachback Center (RRC) may have additional resources on the topic.
16. While researchers may argue whether this can rightly be termed abusive when seen through a lens from within the culture, it is not arguable that it involves a great imbalance of power and/or authority to the disadvantage of the boy involved. (For information regarding the sexual exploitation of boys as part of Taliban and private militia indoctrination of pre-teen fighters, see the New York Times article by Craig Smith regarding “Warlords and Pedophilia” and the Reuters article “Afghan Boy Dancers Sexually Abused by Former Warlords”—both referenced in “Further Reading.”)
17. Maura Reynolds, “Kandahar’s Lightly Veiled Homosexual Habits” (Los Angeles Times, 3 April 2002).
18. A punishment of death for individuals publicly labeled as homosexuals remains a possibility even now, outside of Taliban rule, if enforced by extremist family or tribe members. Familiar recent news highlighted the situation of the young Afghan actor who portrayed a victim of male-upon-male rape in the film The Kite Runner. He had to be removed from the country due to death threats.
19. Reading and understanding Koranic Arabic are two very different things. Muslims around the world, regardless of their linguistic background, are educated in religious schools to be able to read and recite the Arabic of the Koran. That is, they are taught to recognize, pronounce, and memorize the words in order. However, even this education does not teach students the meanings of the Arabic words they memorize. Students who do not natively speak Arabic, like those of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, etc., remain dependent on teachers to interpret what is written for them, and these interpretations vary greatly dependent on the culture and agenda of the teachers.
20. Here a religion that prioritizes love and the fair treatment of others is turned on its head and made to condemn love as the greater sin but to tolerate the selfish use and potential abuse of another person as a pecadillo.
21. From HTT interview dated 28 June 2009, regarding the relationship between Pashtunwali and Islam.
22. From HTT interview dated 30 May 2009. Because of the nature of the details later revealed, the interviewee’s name, specific location, and unit details are withheld to protect the anonymity of DoD employee patients. Further details are available from HTT upon request.
23. Another medical professional’s estimate of homosexual prevalence is featured in Reynolds’ Los Angeles Times article (op. cit.). It reads:
It’s not only religious authorities who describe homosexual sex as common among the Pashtuns. Dr. Mohammed Nasem Zafar, a professor at Kandahar Medical College, estimates that about 50% of the city’s male residents have sex with men or boys at some point in their lives. He says the prime age at which boys are attractive to men is from 12 to 16—before their beards grow in. The adolescents sometimes develop medical problems, which he sees in his practice, such as sexually transmitted diseases and sphincter incontinence. So far, the doctor said, AIDS does not seem to be a problem in Afghanistan, probably because the country is so isolated.
24. These men were also openly observed to simultaneously share the same cots within their sleeping quarters, and did not appear to feel the need to hide or disguise this fact. Again, it appears to be only the label of homosexuality that causes them discomfort.
25. These linguistic abilities were confirmed by a fluent Dari speaker who was an HTT member at the time.
26. Further regarding appearances for future reference, both female HTT members were well-covered in their attire, including long sleeves and pant legs. My own hair was covered with a scarf, while my female colleague’s hair was worn long and down. This may or may not have affected matters, as the men present regarded us both with equal apparent distaste.
27. From HTT personal field notes dated 5 May 2009.
28. HTT interview dated 11 May 2009 conducted at Kandahar Airfield, with former USPI employees. Their previous experience included providing security for the building of the Ring Road over the many years of its construction, and working and living with locally-hired Afghan security details for highly extended periods.
29. Smith, Craig. Op cit.
30. Reynolds, Maura. Op cit.
31. Nick Meo, “The Boy Singers of Kabul” (Moby Capital Updates, 12 April 2005).
32. The titles translate roughly as “gorgeous youths,” “boy loves,” and “boys without beards.”
33. Anonymous, “Afghan Boy Dancers Sexually Abused by Former Warlords” (Reuters News Service, 18 Nov 2007). Interestingly, this article features the phenomenon as it takes place in several other areas of Afghanistan.
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br /> 34. Dr. Richard Ammon, a clinical psychologist who maintains an internet database on worldwide homosexual culture at globalgayz.com, posted an interview containing this quotation. The article is titled “Interview with Michael Luongo on his return from ‘gay Afghanistan’” and was posted in July of 2004. Micheal Luongo is in turn a recognized researcher of gay culture in non-western societies and author of the book Gay Travels in the Muslim World. Both the interview and the book are referenced in “Further Reading.”
35. Smith, Craig, op. cit. Also noted in the Wikipedia article at www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_rights_in_Afghanistan and the Sodomy Laws Database, edited by Bob Summersgill, at www.sodomylaws.org/world/afghanistan/afnews009. htm.
36. Tim Reid, “Kandahar Comes out of the Closet” (The Times of London, 12 January 2002).
37. Ibid.
38. Reynolds, Maura, op. cit.
39. This is often due to orphanhood or family separation because of refugee circumstances.
40. At worst, women are categorized by such leaders as associated with evil—not unlike many Christian teachings over the years, emphasizing Eve’s role in man’s downfall.
41. Taken from the non-published notes of the “Women’s Engagement Binder” available at the PRT, and followed up upon by interview with former discussion leaders. USAID has taken leadership on the women’s development front in Farah province, and can provide further information on request. The specific notes, titled “Women’s Development Ideas,” state:
Though Islamic law stipulates rights to women, in the countryside it ranks behind customary/tribal law which is extremely harsh to women (think village honor code). Add Afghan superstitions and women take the brunt of it. A final influence is the community—for example once a boy reaches the age of 7, he is taken away from his mother and raised by his father. Mothers in law do not help in this process and are generally quite harsh to the younger ladies in a house.
42. Reynolds, Maura. op cit. Anonymous author for Reuters, op. cit.
43. This state of affairs perhaps made most evident in the words of the halekon themselves, featured in the article “Afghan Boy Dancers Sexually Abused by Former Warlords” cited in “Further Reading.”
‘I was only 14-years-old when a former Uzbek commander forced me to have sex with him,’ said Shir Mohammad in Sar-e Pol province. ‘Later, I quit my family and became his secretary. I have been with him for 10 years, I am now grown up, but he still loves me and I sleep with him.’
Ahmad Jawad, aged 17, has been with a wealthy landowner for the past two years.
‘I am used to it. I love my lord. I love to dance and act like a woman and play with my owner,’ he said.
Asked what he would do when he got older, he said: ‘Once I grow up, I will be an owner and I will have my own boys.’
But Shir Mohammad, at 24, was already getting too old to be a dancing boy. ‘I am grown up now and do not have the beauty of former years. So, I proposed to marry my lord’s daughter and he has agreed to it.’
44. From HTT Personal Field Notes dated 15 May 2009.
45. There were hardly any conceivable legitimate reasons for driving so close—within an arm’s reach—to a military vehicle. Locals not involved with the Taliban, as well as anyone with common sense, knew not to approach military vehicles too closely, but instead to wait for them to stop or signal them to stop before attempting to talk with any of the occupants. American and allied forces even invested in massive public awareness campaigns to drive home this safety message.
46. Dated On September 20, 2010.
47. From a personal email with the author dated September 9, 2010. The same text was posted on an internet forum thread titled “Afghan Pedophilia Story” at the website mixedmartialarts.com on September 2, 2010.
48. Oliver Burkeman,”Children Held at Guantanamo Bay,” The Guardian, April 24 2003
49. http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2008/11/22/the-pentagon-cant-count-22-juveniles-held-at-guantanamo/
50. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2978661.stm
About the Author
AnnaMaria Cardinalli received her PhD in theology at the University of Notre Dame. A classical and flamenco guitarist and operatic singer, she became an international recording artist while still a teenager. After September 11, 2001, she responded to a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for individuals with advanced degrees and cultural and religious expertise, which led to her service in Iraq under the auspices of Joint Special Operations Command. In 2009 she became a member of the United States Army’s first Human Terrain Team in Afghanistan, a unit designed to seek cultural understanding and civilian cooperation with US forces. Today AnnaMaria Cardinalli runs a private security firm in Santa Fe, New Mexico, while continuing to enjoy opportunities to pursue her first love: music.
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