tdaxp

Perlez, J. (2007). Militant students capture masseuses to make a point." New York Times. June 24, 2007.

If there's anything that illustrates how screwy Pakistan, and for that matter the rest of the Islamic Gap, is, it's this:

“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.”

Though a concluded paragraph isn't bad, either:

Ms. Hassan, her face absent of makeup but her fingernails and toenails varnished with red, said she was proud of her raiders.

“I said to the students before they went off, ‘The Chinese are masters at karate; you don’t know how to make one kick.’ But they were able to manage.”

And for completeness sake:

His college-age students asked “many times,” he said, about the legitimacy of suicide bombing. Suicide bombing was justifiable against American soldiers. “It depends on the circumstances,” he said. “In a supermarket I will say no. Suicide bombing against American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, I will say yes, yes. It’s not suicide. It’s a mission, then it’s allowed.”

Two take-aways from this article:



First, it's interesting that the New York Times describes what are obviously prostitutes as "masseuses." The reason is clear: opposition to prostitution should be an intellectual, liberal exercise, and not a goonish one. The Times is clearly embarrassed to be intellectually on the same side as madrassa-studying reactionaries, though this isn't surprising. Both the New York Times and the Islamists prefer prostitution to remain in the informal, depriving many women of a natural capitalization vehicle. Both the the Pakistani extremists and the old liberals of the New York Times share the disdain for market exchange, Hernando de Soto-style capitalization of private wealth, and liberty. Both share a sentimental opposition and a thuggish adoration of enforced virtue.



Secondly, the story highlights the transition of China from the Gap to the Core. China is in the unusual condition that while she is becoming a global leader, she has a large reservoir of very low paid citizens. This means that while the United States, Europe, and Japan find their capital flowing oversees in a process of creative destruction, China finds her people innovatively moving abroad for profits. This creates friction, and while the the typical American "downside" is lost capital, the increasingly typical Chinese "downside" is lost lives.



China and the West share a common interest, not only in energy resources, but in a better administration of the Gap.

In a recent series of threads over at The Korea Liberator

• Sexual Slavery Right Here in D.C.?
• TKL Saves Washington’s Upstanding Moral Reputation
• Korean Sex Slavery Ring Busted

James Na, Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Discovery Institute, and I have been discussing emerging global workplace policing trends, from FBI raids on a DC brothel to minuteman raiding of construction sites to the vagaries of educational visa travel enforcement. Eddie especially, who agreed with me on the legalization of prostitution and drugs, may be interested.

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Next, the theory:

"Paper: Going Along to Get Along: Female Sexual Submission in Urban China," by Yan, Glutter, 7 November 2005, http://glutter.typepad.com/glutter/2005/11/paper_going_alo.html (from SimonWorld).

No, not this kind:

The story itself is so-so, but a very interesting conversation thread has developed has developed on Glutter. Your brave tdaxp as the lonely defender of women's economic rights, the left-puritans soundly against:

Dan tdaxp

Interesting that "treating women as equals" seems to involve treating them as children: Women can do and wear what they want, but if they attempt to earn money (prostitution) or dress (office clothes) in a way that is "impure" -- it is up to a man to teach her better morality!

I'm promptly of accused of being an extraterrestrial john...

Oh please. Which planet are you on? None of what you are saying has anything to do with equality. Why don't we try and give all the women who are poor and from little villages really good education and a damn good job and see how many of them "choose" to be prostitute.

And who the fuck is talking about office clothes, and having a man tell her she is impure? Who said her boss is a "man" anyway.

You're so full of it and not know a damn thing about "equality" you purport to be talking about. That's not equality, that's just plane old fashion sexist John talk.

which of course is irrelevent:

What does my status as a john or not have to do with the validity of my arguments?

and further, Glitterbug's views:

Why don't we try and give all the women who are poor and from little villages really good education and a damn good job and see how many of them "choose" to be prostitute.

and tdaxp's

Heck, give me a "damn good" trust fund and see how long I "chose" to work for other people at all :)

Read on!

"'Pleasure marriages' regain popularity in Iraq," by Rick Jervis, USA Today, 4 May 2005, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-05-04-pleasure-marriage_x.htm (from Democratic Underground).

When the future Islamic Republic has more personal liberty than the United States... . *insert snappy line*

In the days when it could land him in jail, Rahim Al-Zaidi would whisper details of his muta'a only to his closest confidants and the occasional cousin. Never his wife.

Al-Zaidi hopes to soon finalize his third muta'a, or "pleasure marriage," with a green-eyed neighbor. This time, he talks about it openly and with obvious relish. Even so, he says, he probably still won't tell his wife.

Shia allows for "temporary marriages," a form of religiously regulated prostitution. They are also well-known in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where they are popular with theology students.

Defining it as something similar to an escort service, Ayatollah Sistani writes

Most Shiite scholars today consider it halal, or religiously legal. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest religious authority in Shiite Islam, sets conditions and obligations for muta'a on his Web site. ("A woman with whom temporary marriage is contracted is not entitled to share the conjugal bed of her husband and does not inherit from him ...")

Of course, we wouldn't have a liberal society if a coalition of fundementalists and feminists didn't oppose it.

Pleasure marriages were outlawed under Saddam Hussein but have begun to flourish again. The contracts, lasting anywhere from one hour to 10 years, generally stipulate that the man will pay the woman in exchange for sexual intimacy. Now some Iraqi clerics and women's rights activists are complaining that the contracts have become less a mechanism for taking care of widows than an outlet for male sexual desires.

...

Sunni scholars fear that giving official sanction to pleasure marriages — many of which are only verbal agreements between the couple — are little more than legalized prostitution that could lead to a collapse of moral values, especially among young people.

...

Women's rights activists are concerned. Salama Al-Khafaji, a Shiite lawmaker who supports the concept of sharia law but advocates for women's rights, calls the re-emergence of muta'a an "unhealthy phenomenon."

Maybe this will reverse the flow of prostitution from Iraq to Syria? Perhaps these women (sfw)are available?

Update: Chris Bowers at MyDD wonders if this is a "wedge issue." Suuuuure.....

"Two thoughts from Amsterdam: On legalising prostitution and drugs," The Acorn, http://opinion.paifamily.com/index.php?p=1278, 2 March 2005.

Acorn combines India, Europe, personal liberty, technocratic governance, and federalism in the best post, ever

While social acceptance of prostitution may not be the government’s business, the government does have an interest in tackling the social problems the ensue from prostitution. Countries like the Netherlands have legalised prostitution; both to avoid the social costs of an industry driven underground, and also to achieve the economic benefits of a formal, organised industry. Can this happen in India?

Not if the central government in New Delhi is expected to make a moral, economic, political and social decision that really is a matter for individual communities to make and live with. Prostitution is really a local business. A brothel in a small, closely knit village of 20 families is quite a different matter from a brothel in a city of 10 million people. For that reason, the decision to legalise or not must be left to the lowest level of government. In India’s context, this means that it may be a matter for the panchayati raj system. States already have the ability to impose prohibition, that another impractical measure. Empowering communities to make their own decisions on matters affecting them most may be a good way to go.

Drugs are quite another story. Amsterdam’s coffeeshops sell soft-drugs to anyone who is above the legal age. Hard drugs remain illegal. The need to make this distinction shows that the question of legalising drugs is tricky. While it can be argued that while consenting adults engage in prostitution on their own free will, this becomes harder to justify in the case of drugs. While prostitution is local, the drug industry is not. China, for example, is only too aware of how opium played a major role in undermining its society and weakening its power. This genie is best kept in the bottle for now.