Today's blog... Connections — convention panels, knitting, and Afghanistan

is over at Book View Cafe here. An excerpt:



Now comes the interesting part. At breakfast, I noticed a group of
women wearing hijabs (head-scarves) sitting together at a table.
Clearly, they were not attending the convention. I greeted them,
explaining that I was to moderate a panel on Islamic fantasy and asking
if they had opinions about how Muslims are portrayed in contemporary
literature, who gets it right, what they find offensive. Only one of the
women spoke English, and she referred me to their (male) translator,
who was quite willing to speak with me, but only about the purpose of
the group. 






It turns out that this was a group of Afghan women, traveling in the
United States to heighten consciousness of the plight of women under the
resurgent Taliban. "Do not forget Afghanistan," he told me. "Do not
forget these brave women," and went on to describe how they had, at
great cost and danger to themselves, set up schools and businesses.




It turns out that one of my charitable causes is afghans for Afghans,
which sends hand-knit and crocheted blankets and sweaters, vests, hats,
mittens, and socks to the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.