Religion

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Credit: Bina Khan/IPS.

Saving Face for Pakistan

By Zofeen Ebrahim and - -
By winning an Oscar at this year’s Academy awards, filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has brought home the genius of Pakistan’s women as well as the extreme violence they often suffer in a male-dominated society.
The occupied church remains open to those who want to pray before Our Lady of Charity. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Dissidents Occupy Church Ahead of Pope’s Visit to Cuba

By Patricia Grogg and - -
A small group of dissidents who identify themselves as members of the Republican Party of Cuba (PRC) continued to occupy a Havana church Thursday, demanding a response to their grievances, despite the fact that the Catholic Church rejected the use of its churches for political ends.

Israel Faces an Army of the Ultra-Orthodox

By Charlotte Silver and - -
The High Court of Justice in Israel has annulled the 2002 Tal Law that had allowed Yeshiva students - scholars of Jewish religious texts - to avoid an otherwise mandatory service in the Israeli army. While politicians on the left and right welcome the court’s decision, the Haredim community considers it an assault on their way of life.
A cinema hall in Peshawar. Credit: Abdul Majeed Goraya/IPS.

Porn in the Land of the Pure

By Zofeen Ebrahim and - -
Dark and smoky, the cinema hall reeks of hashish. An overly made-up woman on screen in provocatively figure-hugging clothes dances suggestively to the beat of loud music. The audience, all men, cheer and whistle. The music stops, the scenes get racier and sexually titillating. The crowd abandons all caution. The whistles turn to grunts and growls, chairs begin to bang.

Faithful and Non-Catholics Alike Prepare to Welcome Pope to Cuba

By Patricia Grogg
The Catholic Church in Cuba expects people to welcome Pope Benedict XVI with warmth and enthusiasm, even though Catholics are not a majority here like they are in Mexico, the first stop on the pope’s Latin America tour that begins Mar. 23.
At a mobile hospital camp Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

Hospitals That Come Home

By Ashfaq Yusufzai and - -
With no money to see a doctor, Gul Lakhta,50, had resigned himself to blindness when a ‘mobile hospital’ drove into his village in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), on Pakistan’s rugged border with Afghanistan.

Q&A: ‘Malaysians Must Vote Out Corruption, Racism’

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Malaysia’s charismatic opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is tapping the spirit of the Arab Spring to end the 55-year unbroken rule of the United Malay National Organsiation (UMNO) and its allies in the Southeast Asian nation.

Somalis Hopeful of London Meeting Despite Media Scepticism

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar
With an international meeting aimed at resolving the political crisis in Somalia set to take place Thursday, the local media in this East African nation is awash with scepticism, referring to the efforts as a new system of re-colonising the country.

Syrian Crisis Spills Over Into Lebanon

By Mona Alami
Chants erupt from the second floor of a decrepit building in Tripoli in the Sunni stronghold of Bab el-Tebbaneh. Young voices loudly sing "Yalla Erhal Ya Bashar," or "Come on, leave, Bashar," directed at the Syrian president, Bashar al- Assad. It has become the anthem of the Syrian revolution.

KYRGYZSTAN: Efforts to Tackle Bride Kidnapping Hit Polygamy Snag

By Chris Rickleton
Legislation designed to discourage the controversial practice of bride kidnapping fizzled recently in Kyrgyzstan's parliament.

U.S.: Muslim “Terror Threat” Belied by Numbers

By Jim Lobe
The threat of terrorism carried out by Muslim Americans appears to have been exaggerated by U.S. officials in recent years, according to a new study on domestic terrorism released Wednesday.

“Raining Bombs” Causing Hundreds to Flee Northern Nigeria

By Mustapha Muhammad
"I can no longer stay here in Kano as it rains bombs. The gun battles rattle us... Kano is no longer safe," said pregnant Funke Nweke of her decision to flee Nigeria’s northern state with her five-year-old daughter.

Bahrain Braces for More Shia Protests

By Suha Mohammed
It is far from Pearl Roundabout, the scene of last year’s crackdown on pro-democracy protestors, but for now Mughsha, a village in the northern district of Bahrain, serves as the centre of the country’s ‘Arab Spring’ movement.

INDIA-PAKISTAN: Food Heals Historic Hostility

By Zofeen Ebrahim
If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, then the path to peace between India and Pakistan may lie in the commonalities in their cultures and cuisines.

BANGLADESH: Coup Bid Reveals Extremism Within Army

By - - and Naimul Haq
Bangladesh’s army has won paludits as leading United Nations peacekeepers, but the January coup attempt against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has exposed lurking religious extremism within its ranks.

PAKISTAN-INDIA: Women Expose Secret Genital Cutting Rite

By Zofeen Ebrahim
"It was a dark and dingy room, where an elderly woman asked me to take off my panties, made me sit on a low wooden stool with my legs parted and then did something…I screamed out in pain," recalls Alefia Mustansir, 40, of her childhood experience.

The Ancient Wither in New Iraq

By Karlos Zurutuza
"I’d say there are around 5,000 of us in the country, but if you ask me next week we may well be under 3,000. After twenty centuries of history in Mesopotamia, we Mandaeans, are about to vanish." Anxiety about the future of his people is more than evident in the figures given by Saad Atiah Majid, chairman of Basra’s Mandaean Council.

PAKISTAN: New Rehab Plan Brings Hope for War-Disabled

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
The prolonged United States-led war against terrorism has left a large number of people disabled in Pakistan, compelling the government to institute a rehabilitation plan that will include imparting vocational skills.

LEBANON: Could a New Civil Law Unify a Divided Society?

By Mona Alami
Odette Klysinska, a Catholic French native, sits in her living room in an affluent neighbourhood in Beirut, clutching her will in one hand, shocked to learn that it is no longer legally valid in the country she now calls home.

PAKISTAN: Taliban Bombs Get Deadlier

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
In their efforts to kill and injure more people as part of a terror campaign in northern Pakistan, the Taliban militia have resorted to lacing bombs with toxic chemicals that leave survivors with complicated wounds.

EGYPT: Islamist Parties to Abide by Camp David – For Now

By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
The Islamist landslide in recently concluded parliamentary polls has led to fears in some quarters of an impending paradigm shift in Egyptian foreign policy. Most local analysts, however, dismiss the likelihood of any sea changes, especially when it comes to the sensitive issues of Palestine and the Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*