I first heard of Anthony Bourdain when he did a culinary travelogue of Uzbekistan, where I was deployed 2003-04. I only got to travel outside our compound in Karshi-Khanabad twice, to the ancient city of Samarqand. He sampled the food, attended an Uzbek wedding, and made the point that the further Uzbekistan goes from its secular Soviet days, the closer it moves toward Islamicization.
The lovely young Uzbek women I spoke with didn’t give a rip about Islam and dressed accordingly for the 100 plus degree weather; midriff-baring tops were not uncommon. They regarded Afghans as primitive woman-hating savages.
Turns out they were right. Been that way for centuries.
Given that Free Republic is regarded by many, including myself, as an educational site, I felt that your captivating description of an incredibly important element of the local Uzbek population might be enhanced and therefore made even more academically valid, by providing some additional photographic information pertaining to your essential post. Although some may have different approaches, I have never been a "stay on topic!" fascist, demanding, for example that 'all' posts in a given thread be closely related to the original post. I believe very strongly that Free Republic has among its membership some of the most brilliant folks on the planet, and so to arbirarily force them into some artificial set of intellectual parameters deprives everyone of the wisdom that they may be able to provide. Therefore, I took it upon myself to seek out examples of the specific Uzbek population that you refer to in an effort to expand upon what is obviously a vital topic, and by providing a particularly verbose and grindingly tedious introduction to my post I'm hoping that any lurking "stay on topic!" fascists might be fooled into forgetting entirely what this thread was originally about. That being accomplished, may I present Sofiko Kanto, Miss Uzbekistan Asia Pacific 2011
http://shinymeteor.blogspot.com/2011/02/miss-asia-pacific-2011-contestant-miss_3232.html