EEP: Charles links to this story about rampant man-boy love in Kandahar, which I thought was the more conservative part of Afghanistan. Apparently this was a prominent part of pre-Taliban life there that is now reemerging in the post-Taliban era. Say what you will about the Taliban, but at least they repressed everybody equally. Now you only get repressed if you're a woman.

Hey, weren't the ancient Greeks like that? Not like the Taliban, I mean what's reemerging after the Taliban which seems to possess a sort of general disdain for women. Not that the Afghans are going to be the cultural titans the Greeks were; more probably it indicates the all-around primitiveness of the culture there. I think.