Why is it that the dirtiest minds so often belong to those who want to control the sex lives of other people? The New York Times has an excellent dispatch this morning from Diwaniya, Iraq, where a number of women in the town have taken up wrestling. This has, predictably, drawn a response from local conservative figures:
One tribesman has said they should be “slaughtered” if they continue. A Shiite cleric says the team should be banned because wrestling can lead to promiscuity and “transgressions” against Islam.
This, however, was the story's best quote:
In fairness, it is not just female wrestling that troubles the traditionalists.
“I have information that male wrestling is problematic, too, because of all the friction that goes on,” said Sheik Hussein al-Khalidi, a turbaned cleric who sits on the provincial council.
--Isaac Chotiner