Barbara Walters Interviews Afghan Woman on Gender Roles
Netlore Archive: In which TV interviewer Barbara Walters supposedly asks an Afghan woman why she still walks several paces behind her husband...
Description: Joke / Urban Legend
Circulating since: 1998/Earlier
Status: False
Email example contributed by Yolanda A., Aug. 15, 2005:
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Fw: Barbara Walters Story BARBARA WALTERS STORY... MAINTAINING A DISTANCE OF 5 PACES BEHIND Barbara Walters of 20/20 did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan, several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked 5 paces behind their husbands. She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. From Ms. Walters vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further back behind their husbands and are happy to maintain the old custom. Ms. Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, "Why do you now seem happy with the old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?" The woman looked Ms. Walters straight in the eyes and without hesitation said, "Land mines." MORAL OF THE STORY: BEHIND EVERY MAN IS A SMART WOMAN!! |
Analysis: Sorry to disappoint, but this is an old joke - so old it predates Barbara Walters' stint as an anchorperson on the ABC-TV news show "20/20" by decades. According to Internet folklorist Barbara Mikkelson, a version of it was told by British soldiers as far back as World War II.
The joke resurfaced after the Gulf War in reference to changes in gender roles following liberation of Kuwait:
A Jornalist had visited the area of Kuwait many years before the Gulf War and noticed that the woman walked at least 10 feet behind the men, and she thought that was not right, but said nothing. After the Gulf War she went back to the same area and notice that now the men walked 10 feet behind the women. she ran up to one of the women and said, "What a change you have brought about, how did you make the men change so that they walk behind you?" The woman replied, "Land mines." [Usenet, March 1998]Variants identifying Barbara Walters as the puzzled journalist began appearing in 2001. For example:
You've Come a Long Way BabyBarbara Walters had done a story on gender roles in Kuwait several years before the Gulf War, and she noted then that women customarily walked about 10 feet behind their husbands.
She returned to Kuwait recently and observed that the men now walked several yards behind their wives.
Ms. Walters approached one of the women for an explanation. "This is marvelous," she said. "What enabled women here to achieve this reversal of roles?"
The Kuwaiti woman replied, "Land mines."
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Sources and further reading:
This Little Wife of Mine
Urban Legends Reference Pages, 25 March 2004
Last updated: 06/29/10
