Two of the most frequent questions I’m asked by my non-Muslim friends are: 1) What’s the difference between a Shi’a and Sunni Muslim (like me) and 2) What happens if a Sunni and a Shi’a fall in love? Neither question has a particularly straightforward answer.
I read a moving story about Sunni-Shi’a love in Newsweek a couple of years back. It was the tale of two Iraqi teachers, one Sunni and one Shi’a who met in 2000 when they were both studying at the University of Baghdad.
A Cautious Courtship
Sunni guy Mahir Murad, 26 and Shi’a girl, Hind al Yasseri fell deeply in love, but had to hide their three-year courtship from their friends and family.
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I found an intriguing and thought provoking article in Arab Times I’d love to get your opinions on:
Apparently, a Pakistani pupil has been expelled from his private school in Peshwar for secretly marrying his 16-year-old cousin. The reason? Teachers at the school believe that marital relations shouldn’t be discussed in the playground.
Age of Consent
The groom in question Ghairat Khan sports a beard and attends 7th grade at the English-language Peshawar Model School. His peers are 12 and 13 year old boys, yet Ghairat insists he is in fact, 18. According to the Arab Times, it’s not unheard of for students to fall back a few years in some areas of Pakistan.
Khan insists he married his cousin because his father died and his mother was ill. Pakistani civil law permits boys to marry at 18 and girls at 16, but under Islamic law, younger unions with parental consent.
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There can be little disputing that Malalai Joya, also known as “the bravest woman in Afghanistan”, has earned her name and reputation.
The brave and outspoken Malalai Joya
An Afghan activist for women’s rights (among other relevant issues) is presently on tour to promote her incredible book A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice.
At the age of 25, she stood up at a 2003 constitutional assembly in Kabul and denounced Afghanistan’s warlords. In 2005, Malalai went on to become the youngest person ever elected to Afghanistan’s new Parliament. Two years later she was suspended from parliament for her relentless denunciation of her country’s warlords and drug barons.
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