Anousheh Ansari and Peter Diamandis continue to post over at the new X-Prize blog.

[Update at 4:30 PM EDT]

Here's another interview with her. Note (to those who continue to talk about the "first Muslim woman in space") that she never mentions her religion, or the word religion.

[Saturday morning update]

Alan Boyle has more on the nationality/religion angle.

As to the Iranian flag issue, just out of curiousity, did the flag change when the mullahs took over, or is it currently what it was during the time of the Shah? If not, it would be an interesting statement for her to have a pre-mullah flag. But in general, she seems to be avoiding the politics as much as possible.

Maybe she's a Zoroastrian.

Well, she claims to be a "moderate Muslim." As I said previously, whatever that means. As someone noted to me, it's probably like a Christian that doesn't actually go to church, or practice in any obvious way.

I'm more interested in seeing how she's percieved by *other* Muslims, of whatever degree of intensity...

Well, let's see. She'll be spending 10 days in very close quarters with infidel men, to none of whom she is either related or married.

Hmmm.

I wouldn't advise any trips back to her country of origin while the current regime is in charge.

I think the prescribed penalty is death by stoning.

Yeah, they stone women for that in, say, Lebanon or Egypt. Right.

The conservativism in those places is more like the US in the fifties. It's there, it's oppressive, but it can change quickly. (It may be worse in the hinterlands, though... I don't know.)

The places where they stone women, though, from backwater parts of Turkey to maybe all of Pakistan :), do it be cause they're in the stone ages, not because they're Muslim. They could formally be Quakers and they'd still find a way to rationalize it through their religion, 'cause they're ultra-ignorant hicks and that's what ultra-ignorant hicks do. If you want to end this, you need to attack the ignorance, not the religion they use simply to rationalize their actions. (That and attack the criminals actually hurting people, but that goes without saying.)

Of course, being the ultra-ignorant dense idiot that I am, I missed that you were talking about Iran in particular, and they do indeed still seem intent on stoning adulters. Gotta love 'em.

'cause they're ultra-ignorant hicks and that's what ultra-ignorant hicks do.

I'm afraid the cure for Islamic bloody-minded tribal barbarism is going to involve a bit more than just buying the "hicks" bus tickets to the big city and combing the hayseeds out of their hair.

Foreigners are not all "people just like us" who merely happen to talk and dress funny.

It's indeed the possibility of a reactionary response, both in the Muslim World(tm) and possibly here, that concerns me. Here's another set of views (including mine):

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/09/15/4080.aspx

Nameless moron:"The conservativism in those places is more like the US in the fifties."

Women were stoned for going out in public without a Burka in the US in the 50's? Wow, my history book wasn't nearly as colorful as yours must have been.

"Women were stoned for going out in public without a Burka in the US in the 50's? Wow, my history book wasn't nearly as colorful as yours must have been."

What? You missed that episode of leave it to beaver? June was all busted up!