Chopped Feet Propaganda for Black Tulip?
Last week I wrote about an Afghan actress whose legs were cut off, turns out: supposedly.
New York Times ran a correction and also reported from the Kabul-premiere of the film. The director’s claims of the actress-incident haven’t been confirmed and the head of the Afghan Film Organization says it was “just propaganda for the film”. (Cost of War sums it up nicely.)
Although the legs-chopped-off-story sounds unbelievable, worse things happen in that country, therefore it could be believable. But now the question is, is Sonia Nassery Cole so driven by her will-not-take-no-for-an-answer-attitude, that she’s willing to say anything to get her way? Which is not cool. It makes the all-too-real-suffering of Afghans cheap.
Our Western right-is-right-and-wrong-is-wrong -morals don’t translate to a lot of places where the end justifies the means. Our worldviews are different. In the east it is a problem if you get caught and are shamed for it. Here you are guilty if it is wrong and you know it.
Sometimes our worldview makes us naive when we deal with places such as Afghanistan.