Posted on 09/22/2013 2:52:22 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
I once lived in a harem in Afghanistan.
I did not enter the kingdom as a diplomat, soldier, teacher, journalist or foreign aid worker. I came as a young Jewish bride of the son of one of the countrys wealthiest men. I was held in a type of captivity but its not as if I had been kidnapped.
I walked into it of my own free will.
It is 1959. I am only 18 when my prince a dark, older, handsome, westernized foreigner who had traveled abroad from his native home in Afghanistan bedazzles me.
We meet at Bard College, where he is studying economics and politics and I am studying literature on scholarship.
Abdul-Kareem is the son of one of the founders of the modern banking system in Afghanistan. He wears designers sunglasses and bespoke suits and when he visits New York City, he stays at the Plaza.
He is also Muslim.
I am Jewish, raised in an Orthodox home in Borough Park, Brooklyn, the daughter of Polish immigrants. My dad worked door-to-door selling soda and seltzer.
But none of this matters. We dont talk about religion. Instead, we stay up all night discussing film, opera and theater. We are bohemians.
We date for two years. Then, when I express my desire to travel, he asks me to marry him.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
He was born a Copt. He converted later, but probably only as a matter of convenience.
You could be right, from what I understand he was no ball of fire in the earning department, which could be one of the things she b****ed about. Ha Ha!!
If you have never seen this film, it is worth watching starring Sally Field,
Not Without My Daughter
‘You are here for the rest of your life. Do you understand? You are not leaving Iran. You are here until you die.’
Betty Mahmoody and her husband, Dr. Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody (’Moody’), came to Iran from the USA to meet Moody’s family. With them was their four-year-old daughter, Mahtob. Appalled by the squalor of their living conditions, horrified by what she saw of a country where women are merely chattels and Westerners are despised, Betty soon became desperate to return to the States. But Moody, and his often vicious family, had other plans. Mother and daughter became prisoners of an alien culture, hostages of an increasingly tyrannical and violent man.
Betty began to try to arrange an escape. Evading Moody’s sinister spy network, she secretly met sympathisers opposed to Khomeini’s savage regime. But every scheme that was suggested to her meant leaving Mahtob behind for ever
The love of money... She was attracted to him because of his money and banking business.
Yep, not really seeing any significant contribution by Muslims throughout the world, at least on behalf of non-Muslims.
All of our stories seem so similar. The older sister of a different HS classmate (married an Egyptian Muslim in the medical field, who came to Pitt to study) once posted a really heartbreaking post on our private members only) FB page last year. She said she looks for “Irish looking” young men in the Cairo group photos (her now teenaged nephews). Her sister went there w/husband & kids post 9/11 a d she hasn’t heard from her since. The boys looked like “her side” of family when younger. NO CONTACT w/US family members seems to be with norm.
Most young people are stupid at 18. This is especially so if they are young girls adoringly in love with a handsome husband who is giving them their first real sexual pleasure. In 1959, before the subsequent political problems, it was somewhat understandable. Kabul back then had some real elements of sophistication, and a highly Westernized husband who had treated Chesler like a queen could have been highly believable. Remember that back then most people just could not imagine what Islam was like.
Do you read the cartoon 'Pearls before Swine'? Rat's your favorite character, right?
Yeah, high risk stuff there. Get caught and you go on a one way trip to the desert.
This may sound racist, but I can’t help feeling like these kind of people have the gene for evil.
While every society has its psychopaths, there doesn’t seem to be a culture of it as there is in the Middle East/Asia Minor.
Yup
This kind of thing is precisely why young women were guarded more in years gone by. But we can’t have that in the Age of Total Equality, nope, just let your daughter toddle off and pray she makes it back.
I read the whole story. It led to a stronger feeling about it than just the excerpt, knowing that her parents were vehemently against it rather than hippy-dippy types. They knew.
I saw exactly that in college. The foreign students, including the ones from South America and Central America, wined and dined the American college girls. They had fabulous adult type cocktail parties, for which they bought the girls expensive gowns and jewels. The American girls were totally bedazzled and all of them said they were treated like princesses.
Then came the boys’ graduations. Everyone of them broke up with their American girlfriends, told them they had been engaged since childhood to girls from back home and went so far as to tell the American girls that they had just spent 3-4 years being mistresses. Other names were added to that.
Lots of tears and misery in the dorms every June.
that is ridiculous
American women in 1959 were not stupid
they knew as much about the world as men ...except vets from WWII
the generational arrogance you just exhibited is foolhardy with all due respect
i think 1950s women were cool as grits
I was born to one
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
Chesler has written this story before - I have her book which is at least 10 years old. Thank God she survived. She’s a good writer and very committed to the cause of anti-jihadism.
I have sympathy for them. The women are wined and dined by seemingly Westernized Muslim men but as soon as they get to a Muslim country, they are treated like slaves.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.