Monday, June 25, 2007
In Islamabad, Chinese Masseuses and Burqa-clad Vigilantes
The Morality Brigade from Madrasa
Pakistan's President Musharraf has a new problem to deal with. Female students from Jamia Hafsa Madrasa, an Islamic school, brought attention to his government's failure to curb immorality by raiding a massage parlor and taking hostages. General Musharraf's administration is far from clean but the action of the morality brigade makes one think of the stone ages. My Iraqi blogger friend would say "Ya Habibi".
The New York Times: Militant Students Capture Masseuses to Make a Point By JANE PERLEZ ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 24 — Dressed from head to toe in an all-enveloping black burka, Umm-e-Okasha joined a pack of students from her militant Islamic school on Friday night, and at midnight they drove to a massage parlor here in the Pakistani capital and rang the bell. “There were about 25 Chinese women, dressed only in underpants and bras,” recalled Ms. Okasha, 24, a muscular high-school badminton champion who had shed her black garb for soft mauves, her face uncovered, during an interview inside the women-only confines of the school. “They scattered, but we managed to grab five.” The vigilantes, including students from an affiliated school for men, shoved the skimpily clad Chinese masseuses into a car, gave them shawls for modesty and hauled them back to the school as hostages, she said. Under pressure from Pakistan’s government, concerned about maintaining its friendly relations with China, the school released the Chinese masseuses on Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours later. |
