Word: mma
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Pakistan, there's a confusing range of opinion about Musharraf. A Taliban-inspired political grouping called Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amals (MMA), which formed in two Pakistani states after America's war in Afghanistan, condemns him for his lack of Islamic fervor. (The MMA-affiliated government of the northern city of Peshawar has prohibited mannequins from being displayed in shop windows and also disapproves of male doctors treating female patients.) But it was the MMA that gave Musharraf support in the parliamentary maneuvers that last week recognized him as an elected President. Middle-class Pakistanis wonder if he's become...
...challenge to Pakistan's shaky, secular government is the last thing Musharraf needs, but the mullahs are pushing a showdown. The Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a political bloc of six religious groups, intends to set up a morality police to enforce Islamic virtue, raising cries among human-rights activists against the "Talibanization" of the province. But popular support for the change is evident: even before the law imposing Shari'a was passed, Islamic youths roamed the town of Peshawar tearing down billboards featuring images of unburqa'd women. The religious parties warned Musharraf not to interfere. "We will resist...
...retaliation, Musharraf could dissolve the provincial assembly. But the MMA is making threats of its own, warning that 68 of its members serving in parliament may resign if Islamabad tries to overturn the local law. That poses no direct peril to Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999. But the flimsy coalition Musharraf stitched together after last October's elections could come unraveled if there are mass resignations. And if the elected government falls, Musharraf's popularity could plummet, as could his standing with his main international ally...
excerpt What had Mma Ramotswe to be embarrassed about? She thought hard. Her weight was hardly a confidential matter, and anyway, she was proud of being a traditionally built African lady, unlike these terrible, sticklike creatures one saw in the advertisements. Then there were her corns - well, those were more or less on public display when she wore her sandals. Really, there was nothing that she felt she had to hide. Now constipation was quite a different matter. It would be dreadful for the whole world to know about troubles of that nature. She felt terribly sorry for people...
...dabble in this and that and do it all well, as can be seen in the professorially cluttered study in the Victorian flat he shares with his wife Elizabeth, their two daughters and a Tonkinese cat called Gordon. There are promo leaflets for the Italian translations of Mma Ramotswe, as his heroine is called according to Botswana etiquette; tomes on law and medicine; a report from Britain's Human Genetics Commission (he's vice chairman); dozens of his children's books (the first success was The Perfect Hamburger); and several saxophones (he plays bassoon, too, in a group called...