Afghanistan
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The Girls Do Cute Things
Her parents, in the past, tried to surrender her to the state, asking the state to force her to go to school. They didn’t want to be held responsible for her any more. Now, it’s Maya who wants to live…
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The Rumpus Interview with Masha Hamilton
Journalist and novelist Masha Hamilton sits down with Maud Newton to discuss the influences behind her latest book, What Changes Everything, the intricacies of writing about conflict, and how her work in war zones has helped shape her fiction.
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How Do You Say “Ollie” in Pashto?
In Kabul, Afghanistan, Oliver Percovich runs an NGO unlike any other: a skateboarding school for kids, called Skateistan. Interestingly, in a country where girls are generally not allowed to ride bicycles (and are even sometimes attacked for going to school), almost…
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Shit Turd and The Purple Light
With this much self-awareness and meditation, residents such as myself tend to forget—or, rather, concentrate on forgetting—that Encinitas is also a half-marathon’s distance from the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, which is roughly the size of Rhode Island.
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Longing for Peace
“On Sept. 11, 1948, my father, Khalilullah Nuristani, was born under the same burden of greatness. In retrospect, he must have believed that he could fulfill what had been his father’s unfulfilled destiny. My father became a tireless fighter for…
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The Rumpus Interview with Megan Stack
The six years Megan Stack spent in the Middle East reporting for the LA Times began as a sort of emergency assignment and ended with Every Man In This Village Is A Liar, her indelible memoir of an education in…
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Good morning! I’m up against a pretty nasty deadline, so blogging might be a bit light today. In the meantime, here’s some links for you from the book blogs. What is the state of reading among the armed forces in…
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Morning Coffee
Today is a good day for map based infographics: charting the 250 greatest movies of all time and the 7 deadly sins. Miniature architecture fashioned from re-purposed kitchen and hardware items. Illustrating New York Missed Connections. Photographing the war in…
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Afghan Star: A Conversation with Tamim Ansary
Pop Idol has been widely imitated throughout the world [American Idol here in the states] , but Afghanistan is possibly the only place where the mere existence of a televised, Western-style talent show amounts to a political statement.
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The Afghan Women’s Writing Project
After visiting Afghanistan for the second time last year, the novelist Masha Hamilton started the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. The project connects Afghan women with American writers and teachers and gives the women space on the blog to share their stories.…
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The Irresistible Illusion
Rory Stewart’s LRB article “the Irresistible Illusion,” analyzes the language current Western leaders use when speaking about Afghanistan. Then he compares it to similar speeches made by others since 1868. Spoiler: Nothing new has been said in over 140 years.…
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Morning Coffee
2010 is just around the corner, where are my Flying Cars? The New York Times on why they will never happen and why they are right around the corner. Coney Island 1952. (via Metafilter) also the 1939 New York World’s…