(no subject)

[eirias]

The BBC reports on "Pakistan's groundbreaking transvestite."

Pretty hard to believe this is the same country where, not so long ago, a tribal council sentenced a woman to be gang raped in retaliation for the unproven crimes of her brother.

Comments

[nonnihil.livejournal.com]

The thing about Pakistan is that the urban and rural parts are nearly separate countries. The government granted almost unlimited autonomy to rural village councils in order to keep the peace, going so far as to entirely eliminate the tier of government binding local councils to the National Assembly. So outside of the cities the law and culture are entirely different. Indeed, in two of Pakistan's regions the government is fighting active wars from time to time against the local governments.

So no, it's not really the same country. It's inside the same lines on the map, but that's about it.