Third Wave Dave informed me about the story about Air Force Major Jill Metzger, who is a missing person in Kyrgyzstan. Like the other former Soviet Union "Stans," Kyrgyzstan is not a democracy, and tribal loyalties outweigh national allegiance.
As OP-FOR points out, Kyrgyzstan is known for bride-kidnapping. This may not have happened to Jill, but nothing can be ruled out in regards to Major Metzger's disappearance.
The link is gone, but last July, the Chicago Tribune had an long article in its Sunday paper about Kyrgyzstan and bride-kidnapping. A few months ago, I saw a PBS Frontline documentary about the subject.
Kyrgyzstani bride kidnapping goes like this: The prospective bride is abducted, an "offer" of marriage follows, this is forwarded to the "bride's" family. Acceptance to the "marriage proposal," or a ransom buy-out is "requested."
According to Murat Sutalinov, Kyrgyzstan's interior minister, there has been no ransom demand.
A troubling situation--Jill was slated to return to the United States this weekend, which makes it hard to believe she would disappear on her own.
Major Metzger is a marathoner, and a good one. She recently ran a three hour and six minute race in the Air Force Marathon. That's a little over a seven-minute a mile pace for 26 miles. Very fast.
Back to Kyrgyzstan. Just once, and only in the print edition an in a box-summary about the nation, was Islam mentioned in the 2005 Tribune article. Kyrgyzstan is an overwhelmingly Muslim nation. The religion wasn't mentioned at all in the Frontline documentary. Yes, I'm well aware bride kidnapping is not sanctioned in the Koran or the various Hadiths. But since subjugation of women is part of Islamic culture--sorry folks, it's true--somehow, even subconsciously, Islam must play some sort of role in this vile practice.
But the mainstream media won't report on that.
Technorati tags: Islam Muslim women Muslims Kyrgyzstan military marathon running air force
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