This is unintentionally, moderately semi-funny:

Thank fuck YouTube or the intertubeswebnet wasn’t around when I was a precocious little genius.

Britain is in a panic about its youth, who appear to be variously being stabbed, gunned down, binge-drinking themselves to death, contracting veneral diseases and, worst of all, getting easy A level passes.

Spare a thought for the Iranian youths who have a far more complex time meeting girls, complete with misbehaving hijabs, and in addition get shown on Iranian television - along with a uniformed man assessing their depravity.

Reporter: Hello, sir. Don’t hide your face. We will blur it. If you’d known you could get two years in jail, would you still do what you just did?

Young man V: I swear by the Koran that I wouldn’t. By the name of Ali, I closed my shop at 21:30, and just got here. I swear to you that I am ashamed.

Reporter: Are you aware of the legal consequences of what you just did?

Young man V: I swear to God that I was not.

Reporter: Now that you know, will you continue to do this?

Young man V: I swear by the Koran that I won’t, just don’t film me.

What this shows is we should immediately bomb Iran…

with Lynx, hairgel and No7 makeup.

New Hitchens here — surprisingly he mentions G_d along the way.

Update Tues 21st: Norm has something to say on this Hitchens latest.

The peculiar dress of the ladies is here seen to the best advantage, and, however fitted it may be to cover intrigue, is not, certainly, adapted to the display of beauty. A more awkward and absurd dress cannot well be conceived. It is by no means indicative of the wearer’s rank, for frequently this disguise is ragged and tattered, and assumed under its most forbidding aspect, to deceive, or carry on an intrigue, of which it is almost an effectual cloak.

I never could behold these dresses without considering them as an emblem of the wretched condition of domestic society in this far-famed city. The saya and manto were originally intended as a retiring, modest dress, to mark reserve, to insure seclusion, and to enable ladies to go abroad without an escort. The general term for the wearers is Tapada, and they were always held sacred from insult.

Tapada is likewise applied to a dress which is also frequently seen, viz., a shawl worn over the head, so as to cover the nose, mouth, and forehead. None but the most ultimate friend can know the wearers, who frequent the theatres in this disguise. It is to be regretted that it is now worn for very different purposes from its original intention. Intrigues of all kinds are said to be carried on under it. It enables the wearer to mix in all societies, and to frequent any place of amusement, without being known, and even if suspected by her husband or relatives, the law of custom would protect her from discovery. In this dress, it is said, a wife will pass her own husband, when she may be walking with her lover, and the husband may make love to his wife without being aware it is she.

The saya is a silk petticoat, with numerous small vertical plaits, containing about thirty yards of silk, and costing fifty or sixty dollars. It is drawn in close at the bottom of the dress, so that the wearer is obliged to make very short steps (ten inches). It is a little elastic, and conforms to the shape, whether natural or artificial, from the waist down. The manto is a kind of cloak, of black silk. It is fastened to the saya at the waist, and brought over the head and shoulders from behind, concealing everything but one eye, and one hand, in which is usually seen a cross, or whose fingers are well ornamented with jewels.

NARRATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION DURING THE YEARS 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842.
BY CHARLES WILKES, U.S.N. Commander of the Expedition. LONDON: INGRAM, COOKE, AND CO., 227, STRAND. 1852.