A flight of fancy

Photo

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 13:42:41 -0700

pocketfullofstories: AFGHANISTAN MILITIA by oliviermatthys on...

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:18:46 -0700

pocketfullofstories:

AFGHANISTAN MILITIA by oliviermatthys on Flickr.

cuteguyss: sb: http://danielzrotfl.tumblr.com

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:39:18 -0700

cuteguyss:

sb: http://danielzrotfl.tumblr.com

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m66wt9Ugf41qe4nyno1_500.jpg

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:35:17 -0700

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m66wt9Ugf41qe4nyno1_500.jpg

First female village chief in Afghanistan defies gender roles || Al Arabiya

Thu, 31 May 2012 18:11:00 -0700

First female village chief in Afghanistan defies gender roles || Al Arabiya:

muslimwomeninhistory:

After being ridiculed by male villagers for wanting to occupy political office, Zarifa Qazizadah, the mother of 15 children, managed to become the mayor of Naw Abad, a village in the northern Balkh province.

Qazizadah’s political ambition started in 2004 when she told her mocking fellow villagers that she wanted to represent them and promised to supply Naw Abad with electricity.

“I am telling the men in my village that if they have any problems, I will talk to the government on their behalf and in case of any trouble at night, I will carry my gun and come to your houses to solve the problem,” she said.

Qazizadah added that she is willing to be disguised as a man and drive a motorcycle in the middle of the night if this will enable her to help her people.

She lost the 2004 elections but kept her promise as far as connecting the village to electricity is concerned. Two years later, the same men who ridiculed Qazizadah asked her to run for head of the village and she finally succeeded.

Currently, Qazizadah’s priority is guarding the electricity supply in Naw Abad and making sure there are no power thefts in the neighborhood.

“I cannot allow this to happen,” she said. “It is against the law.”

Qazizadah also kept her promise about handling problems that occur at night – she dons men’s clothes, gets on her motorcycle, and heads to where the trouble is. According to her, disguise is better in a conservative society that would be shocked to see a woman on a motorcycle late at night.

Qazizadah also uses her own field tractor to tow cars that break down in the middle of the road or get stuck in the mud.

“She does things men are incapable of,” said Mulawi Sayed Mohamed, one of the villagers.

ENDER'S GAME BLOG: Ccspatriot35 asks:How militaristic will the environment be? Will we...

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:48:20 -0700

ENDER'S GAME BLOG: Ccspatriot35 asks:How militaristic will the environment be? Will we...:

endersgameblog:

Ccspatriot35 asks:

How militaristic will the environment be? Will we be seeing the children treated like the soldiers they are meant to portray? For all intents and purposes they are in boot camp for most of their adolescence. Will we see the characters being broken down?

…

Photo

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:34:26 -0700

controproducente: UT12 (by peterbaker)

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:33:42 -0700

controproducente:

UT12 (by peterbaker)

mpdrolet: From Romania David Leventi

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:33:26 -0700

mpdrolet:

From Romania

David Leventi

Things gentlemanly, hoss and literary.: Coffee and Cigarettes

Tue, 29 May 2012 21:59:20 -0700

Things gentlemanly, hoss and literary.: Coffee and Cigarettes:

man-with-nose:

Before I had even opened my eyes, I registered two things; the pistol under my pillow had shifted, meaning I had played with it at some point during the night, and that Chris was making coffee.

I opened my eyes to the world, looking up at the concrete ceiling, painted white, or maybe…

fyeahelcid: CPT Daniel W. Eggers, Class of 1997 KIA in...

Tue, 29 May 2012 21:50:16 -0700

fyeahelcid:

CPT Daniel W. Eggers, Class of 1997

KIA in Afghanistan on May 29, 2004

lookthroughtheloupe: Images from the Corcoran’s Tim...

Tue, 29 May 2012 21:47:37 -0700

lookthroughtheloupe:

Images from the Corcoran’s Tim Hetherington exhibit Sleeping Soldiers. I was struck by the unsettling intimacy of his three-channel video projectionand accompanying photographs of U.S. soldiers stationed in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan.

soldierporn: Just another day at the office. [Top] Coalition...

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:14:53 -0700

soldierporn:

Just another day at the office.

[Top] Coalition special operations forces Pararescue Jumpers lower a stretcher during a medical evacuation in Nuristan province, Afghanistan.

[Bottom] Coalition special operations forces Pararescue Jumpers medically evacuate an injured Afghan National Army commando during a mission in Nuristan province, Afghanistan. Commandos and coalition special operations forces, the first to visit that area in more than two years, defeated insurgent forces overrunning a village. Commando-led missions provide national security by encouraging local villagers to look to government forces for support rather than insurgents.

(Photos by Petty Officer 2md Class Clayton Weis, 13 April 2012 via DVIDS.)

“I didn’t realize how messed up I was until, I got back to America, I started having horrible nightmares, couldn’t focus on anything, constant flashbacks, the whole time I was awake I was miserable, angry, I couldn’t feel any excitement about life, nothing. I stopped talking, I isolated myself, stay in an drink and drink and drink, and I didn’t know why, I know I have PTSD but I didn’t know I would be scared to drive on a simple, American road, you become suspicious of everything, mountains of trash, dead animals, you’re expecting everything to be a trap, and when you start thinking like that everything seems, like a threat in your own environment, it makes you go nuts”

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:10:48 -0700

williamlandry: Three billboards in Montreal’s Mile End are...

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:00:19 -0700

williamlandry:

Three billboards in Montreal’s Mile End are displaying photographs by the late British-American photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed in the Libyan civil war last year.

The photographs are from Hetherington’s series Sleeping soldiers. The images depict U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

The billboards are on the St. Lawrence Warehouse, at the intersection of Van Horne Avenue and St. Laurent Boulevard.

The outdoor exhibition of Hetherington’s Sleeping soldiers is on display in Montreal and six other cities across Canada during the month of May: Dartmouth, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver.

The exhibition is part of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival.

The soldiers depicted on the billboards in Montreal are Kim, Alcantara and Kelso. Hetherington photographed them in the Korengal Valley, Kunar Provice, Afghanistan in 2008.

warwithinaframe: Corporal Nathaniel Matos from Lima Company of...

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:49:02 -0700

warwithinaframe:

Corporal Nathaniel Matos from Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion 6th Marines, looks away from the body of Gulmakay, a fourteen-year old Afghan girl killed by a U.S. Marines mortar strike in Abdullah Jan Village in Marja District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on July 28, 2010. U.S Marines from 3/6 Lima Company came under attack while on patrol in northern Marja District, returning fire and suppressing the insurgent attack with 81 mm mortar rounds. Corporal Nathaniel Matos called in the coordinates for the morter strike that Gulmakay sustained fatal shrapnel wounds from.

Adam Ferguson

Photo

Wed, 09 May 2012 06:59:25 -0700

mpdrolet: Inka Lindergard and Niclas Holmstroem

Wed, 09 May 2012 06:54:51 -0700

mpdrolet:

Inka Lindergard and Niclas Holmstroem

Photo

Mon, 07 May 2012 20:54:32 -0700

cuteguyss: Submitted by lostnaked

Mon, 07 May 2012 20:54:21 -0700

cuteguyss:

Submitted by lostnaked