Word: customs
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...tradition. Mohammad Halim, who runs one of Kabul's best-known burka shops, says he has no plans to offer a wider variety of clothing. "It will only be in Kabul where women will take off their burkas. Elsewhere women will continue wearing them. This is a very old custom in Afghanistan." That very day, says Halim, more than a week after the Taliban fled the city, he sold...
...Prophet Muhammad was a feminist. The doctrine he laid out as the revealed word of God considerably improved the status of women in 7th century Arabia. In local pagan society, it was the custom to bury alive unwanted female newborns; Islam prohibited the practice. Women had been treated as possessions of their husbands; Islamic law made the education of girls a sacred duty and gave women the right to own and inherit property. Muhammad even decreed that sexual satisfaction was a woman's entitlement. He was a liberal at home as well as in the pulpit. The Prophet darned...
That left me with two popular older models: KitchenAid's $100 Ultra Power Plus, which comes in fun colors like green, blue and red, and Cuisinart's Custom Control Total Touch, which typically sells for $70. The KitchenAid was cute and compact, but I finally settled on the slightly bulkier Cuisinart because it consistently turned out the most evenly browned bread, bagels, Pop-Tarts and muffins with the least amount of thought or effort on my part. Now that's what I call a smart toaster--not that I'll ever get near a piece of toast again...
...attitudes toward FGM are slowly changing. In a quiet revolution, African women are beginning to speak out against the practice. Media campaigns linking such rituals to difficulties in pregnancy and AIDS have slowed the custom, especially in urban areas. The growing number of educated women has helped too. In the countryside, success is coming not by abolishing coming-of-age rites altogether but by recognizing their importance and replacing the cutting with alternative rituals. "In some tribes you cannot become a mature woman unless you have come through the ritual," says Kittony, whose group has used alternative rites to reduce...
Instead of selling liquor, he plans to set up a juice bar, in which custom drinks are blended from fresh fruits and vegetables, in January...