Are Afghanistan and Porn Mutually Exclusive?
Only one name comes up when you search the net for Afghanistan and porn. Yasmeena Ali is self proclaimed as Afghanistan’s only pornstar. Even though she was just a child when the Taliban was last ruled her birthplace and she fled with her family to the UK before they were driven out of political office, the mainstream media is making Yasmeena a household name and heralding her as a fearless advocate for female empowerment. I was asked to write an article with her as the subject, but having never met the 28 year old, I had research to do. Unfortunately, as with most porn personalities, the spelling of her name has been inconsistent as well as the details of her life, but knowing that embellishing details for a porn persona is more often than not, part of the game, I fact checked what was written against irrefutable court documents. Yasmeena’s father brought his family to the UK in 2000, making her a mere child of 7. The articles which sensationalize her being unschooled until she came to the UK at 9 then are only trying to substantiate her connection and the war-torn nation. Which is not to say that the preschooler did not come away unscathed by the Taliban rule, her first memories would have been forming at this time, but it does bring to question the veracity of what is written about her.
Yasmeena was 20 when she broke free from her parent’s influence. Free to dress how she wanted, free to date whomever she choose, free to leave the country and mostly free to start a journey of self discovery. She hooked up with her atheist boyfriend a photographer and became his muse. It was 4 years before she fucked on film and after a slow start, she catapulted her career by courting the press with her defiance of her Islamic upbringing. Her story brought together Afghanistan and porn, was proclaimed as a strike back against the oppression of Muslim women. The media loving a juicy scandal embellished it with a conversion to Judaism, in essence throwing gasoline on the fire she had lit under the Islamic adherents closest to her. Her traditional family was disgraced, her mother fell ill, her father hunted her down, wishing she’d never been born, he believed that she should die. Since his arrest, Yasmeena is cemented as a female activist and she will have a career to fall back on long after the public stops seeking her for their sexual fantasies. As her mother falls under the care of her siblings and her father is extradited to Slovakia to stand trial for planning her demise (with the same penalty as if he had actually killed her), Yasmeena stands untouchable, all 4’11” of her, having achieved payback for whatever abuse her repressive upbringing comprised.
In my line of work, I encounter people from all walks of life, many of them much higher on the food chain. A persistent rumor has been circulating concerning Afghanistan and porn since 2009. The rumor alleges Afghanistan’s destabilization was helped along by creating in-home porn theaters. Access to the internet and porn-tube sites were coupled with free flat screen TVs. The mini venues introduced sexually immature men to hardcore imagery with effects much like the devastation that alcohol had on Native Americans. And if these micro porn palaces were anything like their western world counterparts then horny men, already compromised by what they had seen, were soon sucking each other off for release. In the western world, such an act would be over-looked or at worse amount to an indecent exposure charge, in their world, it’s considered a stoning offense.
Yasmeena Ali and I share a few things in common.
The things that Yasmeena and I share in common are few, we both have done porn, and we both have a connection to Islam. The biggest difference there being that I have pursued it, while she has disavowed herself from it. But even then, I will never be held out as an example of a good Muslim. Yasmeena, in going public with her religious reversal, has done what most porn chicks only dream of accomplishing. So she is the envy of many in her ability to marriage Afghanistan and porn as a talking point. Surely, Afghanistan wants to keep as much distance from her and she seems to want to distance herself from her religious birthright. So long as the west has questions about Islam and Afghanistan is in the news, she is sure to be the center of the media attention. I wish her the best with that, I for one don’t like media attention, and I especially don’t want it poking into my past or personal life. But then again by making the press poke around in her past, maybe she is protecting something she values much more in her present life. It doesn’t really matter, a larger than life character is what sells, whether it’s a defiant pretty little lady, or a loud mouthed critic; we all make our way, with whatever we have to work with.
My own ideas about Afghanistan and porn involve me running an in-house porn production company. But I don’t see myself getting a business license to do so in the near future, despite how many of the impoverished sex workers, I intend to lift out of poverty. Given half a chance I cold turn the nation’s urban centers into a sex-worker friendly version of porn valley. Never again would desperate whores drop to their knees for merely a bite to eat, or lift their copious skirts, to be camel jockeyed, for a few dollars. High-speed internet connections cost more than rent over there, so I would have no competition live streaming my productions. In my vision, semen would flow like yak’s milk, and the tourism industry would also feel the spike in revenue as I did my best to bolster a stagnant economy. Maybe it’s too big of an undertaking for one overinflated ego, but I have all the right connections to make it a possibility….Do you suppose that the Taliban would be open to negotiation?
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