

Innocent home videos becoming Pakistani 'porn' on YouTube and destroying lives - r0h1n
http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-10-11/innocent-home-videos-are-becoming-pakistani-porn-youtube-and-destroying-lives

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gmays
I'm obviously not a cultural expert but I spent two years between Iraq and
Afghanistan living with and training the local security forces.

Prior to going over we were taught how culturally sensitive we had to be
because the slightest offense (bottom of the shoe, stepping foot inside a
mosque, eating/drinking openly during Ramadan) could put us in danger.

No doubt, many are devout and live up to the high standards of their culture.
Yet, I was surprised at how many more weren't. I've never been asked for porn
so many times in my life. A large number of them seem absolutely obsessed with
porn, yet when it comes to their wives and sisters they dare not show their
face in public.

We also encountered a number of uncomfortable situations where some of the
senior officials would disregard Ramadan and eat/drink openly in front of the
(armed) guards, who weren't shy about showing their anger. When offered
food/drink we had to choose between offending the official or offending the
guard. We chose to offend the people without the weapons and not eat/drink.
This was during mid/late 2012 when the incidence of green-on-blue (Afghans
killing US forces) was relatively high, so you can imagine the tension.

It's an incredibly difficult place to be without offending someone, especially
for young women who are just trying to be happy. I may be describing it
incorrectly, but the clash between Sharia law and Western influence will
continue as long as fundamentalism is so tightly woven into the culture.

When driving through the countryside and seeing mud hits with satellite dishes
on them and their inhabitants with cell phones it seems like a perfect example
of the cultural clash.

It's even present with the more modern/forward-thinking people. For example,
the interpreters on our team who didn't practice Ramadan were (severely)
looked down upon by those who did. There's no real separation between cultural
identity and religious identity. Unfortunately, I see the same thing here in
America (thankfully to a lesser extent) where people seem to believe that
ethics and morals come from religion and unintentionally (or not) force their
religious beliefs on others.

Anyway, the saddest thing is that these are really great people but the
archaic cultural expectations are suffocating. Even if they don't truly
believe it, they have to pretend they do in public. It's a shame-based culture
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shame_society](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shame_society)).
The weak seem to follow it blindly while those who are most likely to take a
step forward suffer the consequences. Though to a much lesser degree I saw
some similarities to my upbringing (13 years of Catholic school, K-12 (guilt-
based:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt_society](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt_society))
with the same guilt and archaic expectations.

Thankfully I think we're moving away from all of this, but as long as people
are dying over stupid shit and kids can't be themselves it's not soon enough.
And even though we have a little bit of this in America it really is awesome
that everyone can openly express themselves. I don't think this kind of
freedom, diversity, and tolerance exists anywhere else in the world with such
a large population. I guess it just means more to me now since I've seen the
alternative, because I never noticed it before.

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fumigatecvg
Even in 2013 this is happening on Earth, what a shame to humanity.

