someone needs your help.

i was very touched by this article about the plight of afghan women, so i wrote to the author asking what i could do to help. she referred me to the head of the afghan center in kabul. i emailed him the same question and i was pretty surprised by his response.

he said in a bcc email that while he was "glad to see it in print [he was] afraid of its consequences" for the woman that was featured. he continued, "if relatives see this article it could be very bad for her so i certainly don't want to see her name exposed further at this time. all these things would be taken negatively and most like result in her being married off immediately."

how easy it is to forget that we live in a land of free press and free everything else.

he followed-up this morning stating that the situation has deteriorated and included a plea for donations to get this woman and her brother, also forced to be engaged, to the united states. first, they would go to pakistan and live as refugees.

to this end, i'm asking for donations to see if we can help them escape. i've checked everything out and this seems on the up-and-up, even if this has to be done on the qt.

if you would like to donate to the cause, please email me at mipmup at hotmail dot com and i'll send you the strings of emails and the address for donations.