Word: reformist
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...bill's chief sponsor, Daniel Bacquelaine of the liberal Reformist Movement party, admits that cultural considerations have also come into play. "In an open society, we need common values and we need equal rights and duties," he says. Bacquelaine estimates the burqa is worn by only a few hundred of Belgium's 630,000-strong Muslim population, but the numbers have been rising in the past decade. "It has become a political weapon," he says. "There is nothing in Islam or the Koran about the burqa. It has become an instrument of intimidation, and is a sign of submission...
...fiction - from the 1996 epic he describes as his magnum opus, Big Breasts and Wide Hips, to Frog, published at the end of 2009 - is set in a world seemingly remote to the 350 million or so Chinese born after 1980 and the start of Deng Xiaoping's reformist policies. They also happen to be China's most voracious readers, judging by the way in which books targeting this youthful demographic dominate the best-seller lists. (See top 10 friction books...
Will the notoriously hard-charging Sarkozy roll back his reformist drive in the wake of the electoral shellacking? Maybe a bit - especially after his quixotic insistence that the conservatives could win the second round even after the disastrous results of the first round on March 14. Rather than tweak the right's message, Sarkozy focused on a get-out-the-vote push to urge conservatives to go to the polls, a move that helped to slightly increase voter turnout but failed to prevent the left's landslide win. Now Sarkozy may have to accept a change of tactics. Says...
...political compromise may be afoot between the two warring halves of the regime. "I have no doubt that those who believe in the articles of the constitution want to respect its boundaries," he declared in a barely veiled reference to the opposition. None of the leaders of the reformist opposition - Ahmadinejad's two rivals in the polls, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and former President Mohammed Khatami - have called for the abolition of the republic. They have in fact framed their protests as part of the legacy of the Islamic revolution's founding father, the late Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini...
...that may result in different outcomes. In Iran, the catalyst was the charge that the authorities had stolen an election that the opposition believes Mousavi won; the Chinese protestors had no history of voting in competitive elections and were mobilized by the death of Hu Yaobang, a reformist member of the communist leadership. China used maximum force relatively early; it contained the challenge within seven weeks. Iran's regime is losing momentum after seven months; demonstrations late last month spread to at least 10 major cities. China banned the foreign press and tightly controlled state media; Iran has been unable...