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POPSTen Ways to Make Sure That Peace Stays Dead Too many people on each side see the other as wholly culpable. Too many people on each side see themselves as wholly innocent, wholly victimized, ill-served by the well-meaning, abandoned by former allies, betrayed by the media, misunderstood by people who should know better, forgotten by the world. Too many people on each side see only the suffering that has been caused them. Too many people have learned to wall themselves off from the suffering that they have caused.
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POPSLinguistic superpowers The book Limits of Language by Swedish linguist Mikael Parkvall is a sort of languages-only Guinness Book of Records, listing everything that’s large, small and otherwise interesting about the manifold manners of human speech and associated forms of communication. One item deals with the world’s most linguistically diverse countries, and is illustrated with this map, of the world’s ‘linguistic superpowers’.
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POPSDemystifying "modesty" I have seen most of these on women here in the UAE, I never really thought about there being any difference among them...
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POPSOffended Muslim Syndrome In order to guard against OMS, health officials warn individuals who are at risk to make sure that the objective reality they are exposed to does not: * Make them aware of the outside world * Trigger curiosity about the Western notions of "logic" or "rationality" * Make life more enjoyable * Cause them to question the need for martyrdom * Have side effects such as independent thinking and longing to live as a productive individual * Create an illusion that communication with infidels is possible without hostage-taking
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POPSWorld's Largest Carpet Woven for Worshippers By any measure, it's a marvel—as a work of art, as an article of devotion, as a testament to the richness of hand-made craftwork. But who's going to take it outside and beat it? Long known for its delicate and ornate Persian rugs, Iran has recently been losing market share to cheaper Asian manufacturers, according to industry reports
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POPSrun girls, run!!! It couldn’t possibly be that these young girls see clearly the life that awaits them in the loving arms of Saudi Arabia and don’t want to live like an identity-less being, someone else’s third-rate possession and be doomed to a life of beatings, unending labor, and even death if they step out of line, could it? :rolleyes:
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POPSUnderstanding turbans
Sikh men commonly wear a peaked turban that serves partly to cover their long hair, which is never cut out of respect for God's creation. Devout Sikhs also do not cut their beards, so many Sikh men comb out their facial hair and then twist and tuck it up into their turbans along with the hair from their heads. Muslim religious eldersoften wear a turban wrapped around a cap known in Arabic as a kalansuwa. Afghan men wear a variety of turbans. And some men in Afghanistan do not wear turbans at all, but rather a distinctive Afghan hat. Iranian leaders:The word turban is thought to have originated among Persians living in the area now known as Iran, who called the headgear a dulband. Indian men sometimes wear turbans to signify their class, caste, profession or religious affiliation The kaffiyeh is not technically a turban. It is really a rectangular piece of cloth, folded diagonally and then draped over the head Desert peoples have long used the turban to keep sand out of their fac
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POPS'Cover up or we will cut your throats' On Sunday, around 50 anchors and employees from government-run Palestine TV, mostly women wearing Muslim headscarves, marched from the station's offices in Gaza City toward the office of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to protest the threat.
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POPSChild Marriage A very good resource on the worldwide prevalence of child marriage. Source also has a section containing stories of young girls who went through this....
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POPSThings beginning to look up for Saudi women Observers believe that the Saudi society's view to type of works undertaken by women began to change as a number of women have been seen working as security guards in some companies and government departments
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POPSMore rights for Pakistani women
Women's rights in Pakistan will not be realised until particular Islamic laws and codes are scrapped. This include laws allowing the marriage of girls under sixteen, making a women's testimony equal to half of a man's, excluding female testimony in Hudood cases, and allowing family members to kill women in the name of honour without any fear of criminal penalty. Pakistan may look from outside very progressive in terms of women's rights, especially when one remembers Benazir Bhutto, something not even the United States has managed to accomplish. It is true that women are guaranteed one-third of the seats in national and local-level assemblies and are represented in the cabinet. It is also true that their participation in the labour force is remarkably large with many women holding university degrees and occupying high posts in both public and private institutions, including the army. But this only applies to urban centres, where literacy rates are high and the economy is booming.
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POPSIrani Minister backs brief marriages to curb illicit sex Sunni Muslims say it is illegal and akin to prostitution, but some Shiites scholars say it reflects the reality of human nature and provides for the rights and responsibilities of both the man and the woman Sixty per cent of Iran's population is under 30 years of age and the average age of marriage has risen to 30 for men and 26 for women, according to unofficial estimates