You couldn't even have this sort of conversation between men and women in Afghanistan. Gervase is right - the plight of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban is unremittingly awful and a crime against human rights.

Kitkat - being a feminist means asserting that women have rights that should be respected as well as men, not emasculating men or point scoring. Women have been terrorists too, even if they've lost out in the wider scheme of things.

Jim - my grandfather moved from Poland to Germany to avoid pogroms, and ended up being deported back to the Warsaw Ghetto while my grandmother died in a camp. Death and taxes are inevitable, but the globalisation of terrorism has appalling implications unless we can find a better way of resolving conflicts in the 21st century.

Kitty