No, not Musharraf himself. The cross-dresser in question is Begum Nawazish Ali, aka Ali Saleem, pictured above. This New York Times article by Salman Masood, "When She Speaks, He’s Breaking All of Islam’s Taboos" (thanks to all who sent this in), illustrates the wildly diverging pressures within Pakistani society today, in which a man dressed as a woman can discuss taboo subjects, but an actual woman can't; a rape law that is more recognizant of women'e rights is derided by clerics as un-Islamic; and only pressure from the President and the Supreme Court kept a province from enacting Sharia law.

Dinesh D'Souza is coming out with a new book in which he apparently argues that the immorality of Western societies hands a weapon to jihadists that we do not need to hand them; I haven't seen the book, so I don't know how he states this thesis, but I have of course argued many times, and will continue to argue, that the immorality of the West is for jihadists at best a recruiting tool, and that the jihad arises from imperatives within Islamic teaching that would remain even if America were the most moral non-Muslim society on earth. But within Pakistan and among Muslims, it's a different story: Ali Saleem is a symbol of immorality, and thus, if Pakistan were a Sharia state, his life would be forfeit. If Musharraf is ultimately driven from power, Ali Saleem would not only be taken off the air, but would probably be killed.

Mr. Saleem, who in the guise of Begum Nawazish Ali often gets away with questions to politicians that print journalists might be wary of, said his show would not have been a possibility earlier. “I owe Begum Nawazish Ali’s existence, in a certain way, to General Musharraf,” he said....