Longform’s Picks of the Week

Every weekend, Longform highlights its favorite international articles of the week. For daily picks of new and classic nonfiction, check out Longform or follow @longform on Twitter. Have an iPad? Download Longform’s new app and read all of the latest in-depth stories from dozens of magazines, including Foreign Policy.

“A Thin Line of Defense Against ‘Honor Killings'” by Alissa J. Rubin, the New York Times.
Women’s shelters are one of the most provocative legacies of the Western presence in Afghanistan.

“These shelters, almost entirely funded by Western donors, are one of the most successful — and provocative — legacies of the Western presence in Afghanistan, demonstrating that women need protection from their families and can make their own choices. And allowing women to decide for themselves raises the prospect that men might not control the order of things, as they have for centuries. This is a revolutionary idea in Afghanistan — every bit as alien as Western democracy and far more transgressive.

As the shelters have grown, so has the opposition of powerful conservative men who see them as Western assaults on Afghan culture. ‘Here, if someone tries to leave the family, she is breaking the order of the family and it’s against the Islamic laws and it’s considered a disgrace,’ said Habibullah Hasham, the imam of the Nabi mosque in western Kabul and a member of a group of influential senior clerics. ‘What she has done is rebelling.'”

“Phantom of the Orchestra” by Christopher Beam, the New Republic.

Mamoru Samuragochi’s story hit all the right notes: a deaf genius whose music inspired a nation. But the “Japanese Beethoven” wasn’t who he seemed.

“After the performance, Samuragochi would be hailed as one of the great classical talents of his generation. Japanese media seized on Samuragochi’s spectacular story, featuring him on TV specials and in magazine articles. CD sales of the symphony by Nippon Columbia, one of Japan’s oldest and most respected record labels, eventually climbed to 180,000—a blockbuster for the Japanese classical music industry, which had been struggling to attract new listeners. When Recording Arts magazine asked readers to name their 20 favorite classical CDs of 2011, Samuragochi was the only living composer on the list. In the summer of 2013, his publisher released a paperback version of his autobiography with a cover blurb from the legendary writer Hiroyuki Itsuki: ‘If there is an artist whom we can call a genius today, Mamoru Samuragochi would definitely be the one.’ After decades of struggle, Samuragochi was finally receiving the recognition he’d always craved.”

“The Plot to Free North Korea with Smuggled Episodes of ‘Friends'” by Andy Greenberg, Wired.

Former North Korean official Kim Heung-kwang used to search homes for illegal media; now he smuggles it into the country on flash drives.

“Even The Interview — the Kim Jong-un assassination comedy that the North Korean government tried to keep from being released by using threats, intimidation, and (according to the FBI) a devastating hacking operation against Sony Pictures — has made its way into the country. Chinese traders’ trucks carried 20 copies of the film across the border the day after Christmas, just two days after its online release. ‘What I do is what Kim Jong-un fears most,’ says Jung, the smuggler, who shows me videos and pictures of his missions while seated in the lobby of a hospital in Bucheon, South Korea. Jung, wearing a military-style cap and pajamas, is taking a break from rehabilitation therapy for knee injuries he sustained while being tortured in a North Korean prison 15 years ago. ‘For every USB drive I send across, there are perhaps 100 North Koreans who begin to question why they live this way. Why they’ve been put in a jar.’

Each activist group has its own tactics: Fighters for a Free North Korea loads up 35-foot balloons that float into the country and rain down pamphlets, US dollar bills, and USB drives full of political materials. North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity smuggles in USBs filled with short documentaries about the outside world created by the group’s founder, a former North Korean computer scientist who used to help the government confiscate illicit media.”

“Travels With My Censor” by Peter Hessler, the New Yorker.

A Chinese book tour.

“On the tour, Zhang was omnipresent, not because he wanted to monitor me but because he was responsible for virtually everything that happened. And yet his presence was quiet: usually, he was off to the side, listening and observing but saying little. He always wore sneakers, an old T-shirt, and calf-length trousers, and this casual outfit, during thirteen-hour days, sometimes made me feel like I was being given a tour of Purgatory by a neo-Marxist grad student. But I appreciated the guidance. Recently, there have been a number of articles in the foreign press about Chinese censorship, with the tone highly critical of American authors who accept changes to their manuscripts in order to publish in mainland China. The articles tend to take a narrowly Western perspective: they rarely examine how such books are read by Chinese, and editors like Zhang are portrayed crudely, as Communist Party hacks. This was one reason I went on the tour — I figured that the best way to understand censorship is to spend a week with your censor.”

“Eat, Pray, Leeches” by Michael Edison Hayden, Foreign Policy.

Narendra Modi wants India to embrace its traditional systems of medicine, like ayurveda and yoga. But can he convince rich Indians to treat their ailments with lead pills and squirming bugs?

“Ayurveda, often called an “alternative” form of medicine by proponents, has roots that trace back to the Vedic period in the northern Indus Valley, and the very origins of Hinduism — around 1750 B.C. The first syllable comes from the Sanskrit word “ayus,” meaning life, and the second from the word, “veda,” roughly meaning knowledge, or science. The practice, which incorporates herbs and other natural substance-based medicines, special diets, and massage, is based on a preventative, as opposed to curative, approach to health. By about 500 A.D., ayurveda had developed into a formidable system of medicine that included surgical techniques, pediatrics, and even dentistry.

Ayurveda and other traditional forms of medicine flourished with limited competition until the arrival of Western powers on the subcontinent in the early 17th century. Modi and other proponents of India’s medical heritage argue that British rule marginalized systems such as ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani: Social elites adapted Western attitudes to health care and practitioners of traditional medicines saw their influence wane. In promoting AYUSH, they say, Modi’s government is restoring these remedies to their rightful place.”

RAHMATULLAH ALIZADA/AFP/Getty Images; SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images; TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images; JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images; PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images; SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images