I'm obviously not a cultural expert but I spent two years between Iraq and Afghanistan living with and training the local security forces.

Prior to going over we were taught how culturally sensitive we had to be because the slightest offense (bottom of the shoe, stepping foot inside a mosque, eating/drinking openly during Ramadan) could put us in danger.

No doubt, many are devout and live up to the high standards of their culture. Yet, I was surprised at how many more weren't. I've never been asked for porn so many times in my life. A large number of them seem absolutely obsessed with porn, yet when it comes to their wives and sisters they dare not show their face in public.

We also encountered a number of uncomfortable situations where some of the senior officials would disregard Ramadan and eat/drink openly in front of the (armed) guards, who weren't shy about showing their anger. When offered food/drink we had to choose between offending the official or offending the guard. We chose to offend the people without the weapons and not eat/drink. This was during mid/late 2012 when the incidence of green-on-blue (Afghans killing US forces) was relatively high, so you can imagine the tension.

It's an incredibly difficult place to be without offending someone, especially for young women who are just trying to be happy. I may be describing it incorrectly, but the clash between Sharia law and Western influence will continue as long as fundamentalism is so tightly woven into the culture.

When driving through the countryside and seeing mud hits with satellite dishes on them and their inhabitants with cell phones it seems like a perfect example of the cultural clash.

It's even present with the more modern/forward-thinking people. For example, the interpreters on our team who didn't practice Ramadan were (severely) looked down upon by those who did. There's no real separation between cultural identity and religious identity. Unfortunately, I see the same thing here in America (thankfully to a lesser extent) where people seem to believe that ethics and morals come from religion and unintentionally (or not) force their religious beliefs on others.

Anyway, the saddest thing is that these are really great people but the archaic cultural expectations are suffocating. Even if they don't truly believe it, they have to pretend they do in public. It's a shame-based culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shame_society). The weak seem to follow it blindly while those who are most likely to take a step forward suffer the consequences. Though to a much lesser degree I saw some similarities to my upbringing (13 years of Catholic school, K-12 (guilt-based: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt_society) with the same guilt and archaic expectations.

Thankfully I think we're moving away from all of this, but as long as people are dying over stupid shit and kids can't be themselves it's not soon enough. And even though we have a little bit of this in America it really is awesome that everyone can openly express themselves. I don't think this kind of freedom, diversity, and tolerance exists anywhere else in the world with such a large population. I guess it just means more to me now since I've seen the alternative, because I never noticed it before.