1.
Kabul
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Kabul is the capital of Afghanistan as well as its largest city, located in the eastern section of the country. According to a 2015 estimate, the population of the city was around 3,678,033 which includes all the ethnic groups. Rapid urbanization had made Kabul the worlds 64th largest city and the fifth fastest-growing city in the world, Kabul is said to be over 3,500 years old, mentioned since at least the time of the Achaemenid Empire. The city is at a location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia. It has been part of the Achaemenids, Seleucids, Mauryans, Kushans, Kabul Shahis, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Later, it was controlled by the Mughal Empire until finally becoming part of the Durrani Empire in 1747. The city is located high up in a valley between the Hindu Kush mountains. Kabul became the capital of Afghanistan during the reign of Timur Shah Durrani, in the early 19th century, the British occupied the city but were compelled to abandon it. Relations between Afghanistan and Great Britain were later established, the city was occupied by the Soviets in 1979 but they too abandoned it after the 1988 Geneva Accords were signed. A civil war in the 1990s between various rebel groups destroyed much of the city, resulting in many casualties, since the removal of the Taliban from power in late 2001, the city gradually began rebuilding itself with assistance by the international community. Despite the many terrorist attacks by elements, the city is growing and developing. The city is divided into about 18 districts, the Kabul International Airport is located in the Wazir Akbar Khan district a few miles from the foreign embassies. The Parliament of Afghanistan, built by India, is located in the Kārte Seh district, Kabul, also spelled Cabool, Caubul, Kabol, or Cabul. The word Kubhā is mentioned in the Rigveda, one of the four sacred texts of Hinduism, and the Avesta. The Rigveda praises it as a city, a vision of paradise set in the mountains. The area in which the Kabul valley sits was ruled by the Medes before falling to the Achaemenids, there is a reference to a settlement called Kabura by the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire, It became a center of Zoroastrianism followed by Buddhism and Hinduism. The region became part of the Seleucid Empire but was given to the Indian Maurya Empire. The Greco-Bactrians captured Kabul from the Mauryans in the early 2nd century BC, indo-Scythians expelled the Indo-Greeks by the mid 1st century BC, but lost the city to the Kushan Empire about 100 years later. Some historians ascribe Kabul the Sanskrit name of Kamboja and it is mentioned as Kophes or Kophene in some classical writings
2.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Afghan Americans
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Afghan Americans are Americans of Afghan descent or Americans who originated from Afghanistan. Afghan Americans may originate from any of the groups of Afghanistan. Afghan Americans have a history of immigrating to the United States. Due to the borders at that time period, some of these Afghan immigrants may have been ethnic Pashtuns from British India or Afghanistan. Wallace Fard Muhammad, credited for being the founder of the Nation of Islam, during the 1930s and 1940s, well-educated Afghans entered America. Between 1953 and early 1970, at least 230 migrated into the United States, some of those who entered the US were students who won scholarships to study in American universities. After the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, around five million Afghan citizens were displaced and these Afghan refugees mostly settled in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, and from there many made it to the European Union, North America, Australia, and elsewhere in the world. Those who were granted refugee status in the United States began to settle in California and in the Northeastern United States, fremont, California, is home to the largest population of Afghan Americans followed by Northern Virginia. Smaller Afghan American communities also exist in the states of Texas, Illinois, Florida, Washington, in the city of Chicago, the 2000 census counted 556 Afghans, approximately half of them within the city. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, there were approximately 65,972 Afghan-Americans living in the country in 2006, by 2015, the number grew to around 96,089. Like all other living in the United States, Afghan Americans have gradually adopted the American way of life. They watch Afghan television stations, listen to Afghan music, and they also value their oral tradition of story telling. The stories they tell are about Nasreddin, Afghan history, myths. Afghan Americans celebrate August 19 as Afghan Day and it is a commemoration of the Afghan Independence Day, which relates to August 1919, the date when Afghanistan became globally recognized after the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 was signed. Small festivals are held in cities that have Afghan communities, usually at the parks where black, red, there is a community of Afghan Jews in New York City, numbering about 200 families in 2007. In addition, a group of Afghan Americans in the Los Angeles area follow Christianity, hussain Andaryas is an Afghan Christian televangelist who belongs to the Hazara ethnic group. Afghan immigrants that arrived to the United States before 1979 were well-educated, in contrast, current immigrants have fled Afghanistan after it destabilized during the 1979 Soviet occupation as this group has had trouble coping with learning a new language. After the Soviet invasion, Afghanistans education system worsened, causing many migrants in the late 20th century to less emphasis on educational attainment
5.
Bikini
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A bikini is usually a womens abbreviated two-piece swimsuit with a bra top for the chest and underwear cut below the navel. The basic design is simple, two triangles of fabric on top cover the breasts and two triangles of fabric on the bottom cover the groin in front and the buttocks in back. The size of a bottom can range from full pelvic coverage to a revealing thong or G-string design. The name for the design was coined in 1946 by Parisian engineer Louis Réard. He named the swimsuit after Bikini Atoll, where testing on the bomb was taking place. Fashion designer Jacques Heim, also from Paris, re-released a similar design earlier that same year, due to its controversial and revealing design, the bikini was slow to be adopted. In many countries it was banned from beaches and public places, the bikini design became common in most Western countries by the mid-1960s as beachwear, swimwear and underwear. By the late 20th century it had become common as sportswear in sports such as beach volleyball, variations of the term are used to describe stylistic variations for promotional purposes and industry classifications, including monokini, microkini, tankini, trikini, pubikini, and skirtini. A mans brief swimsuit may also be referred to as a bikini, similarly, a variety of mens and womens underwear types are described as bikini underwear. The bikini has gradually grown to wide acceptance in Western society. By the early 2000s, bikinis had become a US$811 million business annually, while the two-piece swimsuit as a design existed in classical antiquity, the modern design first attracted public notice in Paris on July 5,1946. Four days earlier, the United States had initiated its first peace-time nuclear weapons test at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads, Réard hoped his swimsuits revealing style would create an explosive commercial and cultural reaction similar to the explosion at Bikini Atoll. Later swimsuit designs like the tankini and trikini further cemented this false assumption, although bikini was originally a registered trademark of Réard, it has since become genericized. A mans brief swimsuit may also be referred to as a bikini, similarly, a variety of mens and womens underwear types are described as bikini underwear. The two-piece swimsuit can be traced back to the Greco-Roman world, the mosaic, found in the Sicilian Villa Romana del Casale, features ten maidens who have been anachronistically dubbed the Bikini Girls. Other Roman archaeological finds depict the goddess Venus in a similar garment, in Pompeii, depictions of Venus wearing a bikini were discovered in the Casa della Venere, in the tablinum of the House of Julia Felix, and in an atrium garden of Via DellAbbondanza. Swimming or bathing outdoors was discouraged in the Christian West, so there was little demand or need for swimming or bathing costumes until the 18th century. The bathing gown of the 18th century was a loose ankle-length full-sleeve chemise-type gown made of wool or flannel that retained coverage, in 1913, designer Carl Jantzen made the first functional two-piece swimwear
6.
Miss Earth
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Miss Earth is an annual international environmental-themed beauty pageant promoting environmental awareness. The Miss Earth winner is the spokesperson for the Miss Earth Foundation, the current Miss Earth is Katherine Espín of Ecuador who was crowned on 29 October 2016 in Pasay, Philippines. Those who participate in the pageant are involved with humanitarian and environmental causes, the pageant winner is expected to be involved in international projects, which are also promoted during the pageants broadcast. The delegates also take part in tree planting ceremonies, environmental and cultural programs, sponsor visits. In October 2001, Miss Earth adopted the slogan Beauties For a Cause, the Miss Earth Foundation campaign focuses in educating the youth in environmental awareness. Its major project “I Love Planet Earth School Tour, teaches and distributes educational aides for school children, the Miss Earth pageant has grown over the years, with an increasing number of countries participating each year. The number of national Miss Earth pageants has grown on every continent as well, in 2006, the host country Chile failed to meet the requirements of the host committee, the pageant was moved back to the Philippines. The outfit designs are made from recyclable, natural materials, organic materials, the pageant introduced in 2011 the Miss Earth Declaration, a manifesto pledging the support of all the candidates for a common environmental mission to be implemented in their respective countries. In 2003, Vida Samadzai, an Afghan woman, now residing in the United States, Samadzai was the first Afghan woman to compete in an international beauty pageant in almost three decades, but the fact that she wore a bikini caused an uproar in her native country. Miss Earth also made headlines in 2005 when a Pakistani beauty queen, Naomi Zaman, shes the first delegate from Pakistan to compete in any major international pageants. Beauty pageants are frowned-upon in Pakistan and she also advocated for the boundaries of acceptable social etiquette towards modernity, in a traditionally conservative Tibetan culture, where most grown women wear ankle-length dresses. Nevertheless, her participation in the pageant received an approval from the Dalai Lama, in 2007, Carousel Productions licensed the Miss Cuba organization to select the first Cuban representative to Miss Earth. Ariana Barouk won and became the first Miss Cuba in several decades, also in 2007, Miss Earth made history when delegates from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Tibet competed altogether for the first time in any international pageant. In 2008, the Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan, one of the worlds most isolated nations, sent its first Miss Bhutan, Rwanda also sent its first ever Miss Rwanda national winner, Cynthia Akazuba, both of them competed at the Miss Earth 2008 pageant. The pageant had been held in the Philippines every year from 2001 to 2009, Miss Earth 2006 was scheduled to be held in Santiago, Chile on November 15, but organizational problems forced the pageant to move back to the Philippines. In 2008, the pageant was held for the first time outside Metropolitan Manila and it was held at the Clark Expo Amphitheater in Angeles City, Pampanga on November 9,2008. In 2009, the pageant took place for the first time outside Luzon Island, the coronation night venue for Miss Earth 2009 was held at the Boracay Ecovillage Resort and Convention Center in the Island of Boracay, Philippines. In 2010, the pageant finally took place for the first time outside the Philippines, the coronation night venue for Miss Earth 2010 was held at the Vinpearl Land Amphitheater at Nha Trang, Vietnam
7.
Pashtuns
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The Pashtuns /ˈpʌʃˌtʊnz/ or /ˈpæʃˌtuːnz/, historically known by the exonyms Afghans, and Pathan, are an ethnic group native to Afghanistan and North-Western Pakistan. They are generally classified as Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistically, who use Pashto language and follow Pashtunwali, the origin of Pashtuns is unclear but historians have come across references to various ancient peoples called Pakthas between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC, who may be their early ancestors. Their history is mostly spread amongst various countries of South and Central Asia, as the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, Pashtuns have been the dominant ethno-linguistic group for over 300 years. The Barakzai dynasty played a role during the Great Game from the 19th century to the 20th century as they were caught between the imperialist designs of the British and Russian empires. There have been many notable Pashtun people throughout history, Ahmad Shah Durrani is regarded as the founder of the modern state of Afghanistan. Under Amanullah Khan, Afghanistan was able to pursue an independent foreign policy, some others include Malala Yousafzai, Shah Rukh Khan, Hamid Karzai, and Imran Khan. They are an important community in Pakistan, which has the largest Pashtun population, Pashtuns attained presidency there and high rankings in sports. They are the worlds largest segmentary lineage ethnic group, according to Ethnologue, the total population of the group is estimated to be around 50 million but an accurate count remains elusive due to the lack of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979. Estimates of the number of Pashtun tribes and clans range from about 350 to over 400, additional Pashtun communities are located in western and northern Afghanistan, the Gilgit–Baltistan and Kashmir regions and northwestern Punjab province of Pakistan. There are also sizeable Muslim communities in India, which are of largely Pashtun ancestry, throughout the Indian subcontinent, they are often referred to as Pathans. Smaller Pashtun communities are found in the countries of the Middle East, such as in the Khorasan Province of Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe, important metropolitan centres of Pashtun culture include Peshawar, Quetta, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Kunduz, and Lashkar Gah. The cities of Kabul and Ghazni in Afghanistan are home to around 25% Pashtun population while Herat, with as high as 7 million by some estimates, the city of Karachi in Sindh, Pakistan has the largest concentration of urban Pashtuns in the world. In addition, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Lahore also have sizeable Pashtun populations, about 15% of Pakistans nearly 200 million population is Pashtun. In Afghanistan, they are the largest ethnic group and make up between 42-60% of the 32.5 million population. The exact figure remains uncertain in Afghanistan, which is affected by the 1.5 million or more Afghan refugees that remain in Pakistan. Another one million or more Afghans live in Iran, a cumulative population assessment suggests a total of around 49 million individuals all across the world. A prominent institution of the Pashtun people is the system of tribes. Despite this, many people identify themselves with various clans
8.
California State University, Fullerton
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California State University, Fullerton is a public research university located in Fullerton, California. As of Fall 2013, the school had 1,932 faculty, CSUF is designated both as a Hispanic-serving institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander serving institution. Spending related to CSUF generates an impact of around $1 billion to the California and local economy, CSUF athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the CSUF Titans. They are members of the Big West Conference, in 1957, CSUF became the twelfth state college in California to be authorized by the state legislature as a degree-granting institution. The following year, a site was designated for the campus to be established in northeast Fullerton, the property was purchased in 1959. This is the year that Dr. William B. Langsdorf was appointed as founding president of the school, the university was originally named Orange County State College. Classes began with 452 students in September 1959, the name of the school was changed to Orange State College in July 1962. In 1964, its name was changed to California State College at Fullerton, in June 1972, the final name change occurred and the school became California State University, Fullerton. The university grew rapidly in the first decade of the 2000s, the Performing Arts Center was built in January 2006, and in the summer of 2008 the newly constructed Steven G. Mihaylo Hall and the new Student Recreation Center opened. In fall 2008, the Performing Arts Center was renamed the Joseph A. W, clayes III Performing Arts Center, in honor of a $5-million pledge made to the university by the trustees of the Joseph A. W. Since 1963, the curriculum has expanded to many graduate programs, including multiple doctorate degrees, as well as numerous credential. The choice of the elephant as the mascot, dubbed Tuffy the Titan, dates to 1962. The May 11 event attracted 10,000 spectators,15 pachyderm entrants, a telegram from Richard M. Nixon, CSUF was built on the site of former citrus groves in northeast Fullerton. It is bordered on the east by the Orange Freeway, on the west by State College Boulevard, on the north by Yorba Linda Boulevard and this was in response to the numerous Googie buildings in the Fullerton community. The library houses the Philip K. Dick science fiction collection, the campus is also home to the renowned Fullerton Arboretum, located in the northeast section of the campus. It has gained fame in recent years for its highly successful efforts in breeding the Titan Arum plant, which the school sponsors in honor of its sports team. In 2006, the Arboretum successfully bred four blooming specimens, the campus has undergone many additions
9.
Fullerton, California
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Fullerton is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 135,161. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka, historically it was a center of agriculture, notably groves of Valencia oranges and other citrus crops, petroleum extraction, transportation, and manufacturing. It is home to higher educational institutions, particularly California State University. Evidence of prehistoric habitation, such as saber-toothed cats and mammoths, is present in Ralph B. Clark Regional Park in the northwest of the city. Europeans first passed through the area in 1769 when Gaspar de Portolà led a Spanish expedition north to Monterey. From the description recorded in the diary of Father Juan Crespi, it likely that the party camped on July 29 near present-day Laguna Lake. After establishment of Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in 1771, the local Tongva people were dubbed Gabrieliños by the Spanish, in 1837, the Fullerton area became part of Rancho San Juan Cajón de Santa Ana, granted to Juan Pacifico Ontiveros, a Spanish soldier. Ontiveros began to sell parcels of the Rancho to migrant Americans settling and developing California in the aftermath of the 1849 Gold Rush, in the 1860s, Stearns sold in turn to Domingo Bastanchury, a Basque shepherd. Sensing opportunity, they arranged to buy 430 acres north of Anaheim for approximately $68,000 and they then began negotiations with George H. Fullerton, president of the Pacific Land and Improvement Company, also a Santa Fe subsidiary. In 1894 Charles Chapman, a retired Chicago publisher and a descendant of John Johnny Appleseed Chapman, cultivation of walnuts and avocados also flourished, and the Western railroad town became an agricultural center. Drilling for petroleum began in 1880 with the discovery of the Brea-Olinda Oil Field and fueled the first real boom, benchley, and the citys chief landmark, the Plummer Auditorium and clock tower. Fullerton College was established at its present location at Chapman Avenue, through the mid-1900s the economy shifted toward food processing rather than food production, as well as manufacturing, southeastern Fullerton became an industrial center. Val Vita Food Products began operating a citrus plant in western Fullerton in 1932. By 1941 it had become the largest food processing company in the US, Leo, Tom Yates and Ralph Harrison developed the first Hawaiian Punch recipe in a converted garage in Fullerton. The city also became a producer of aerospace equipment, electrical and electronic components, navigation systems, and laboratory instruments. In 1949 Dick Riedel and Bill Barris piloted the Sunkist Lady, among them, Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards, Joe Strummer, Waylon Jennings, Dwight Yoakam, Greg Camp, Jimmy Page, Kurt Cobain, James Burton, Jonny Greenwood and many others. Although Fullerton like other Southern California cities had experienced an expansion of population due to housing development, to serve the growing population, the California State Legislature authorized Orange County State College in 1957, which began operating out of Fullerton high schools in 1959
10.
Women's rights
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In some countries, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior, whereas in others they are ignored and suppressed. They differ from broader notions of rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women and girls, in favor of men. Although males seem to have dominated in many cultures, there are some exceptions, for example, in the Nigerian Aka culture women may hunt, even on their own, and often control distribution of resources. Ancient Egypt had female rulers, such as Cleopatra, Women throughout historical and ancient China were considered inferior and had subordinate legal status based on the Confucian law. In Imperial China, the Three Obediences promoted daughters to obey their fathers, wives to obey their husbands, Women could not inherit businesses or wealth and men had to adopt a son for such financial purposes. Late imperial law also featured seven different types of divorces, the status of women in China was also low largely due to the custom of foot binding. About 45% of Chinese women had bound feet in the 19th century, for the upper classes, it was almost 100%. In 1912, the Chinese government ordered the cessation of foot-binding, foot-binding involved alteration of the bone structure so that the feet were only about 4 inches long. The bound feet caused difficulty of movement, thus limiting the activities of women. Due to the custom that men and women should not be near each other. This resulted in a tremendous need for doctors of Western Medicine in China. Thus, female medical missionary Dr. Mary H. Fulton was sent by the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church to found the first medical college for women in China. Known as the Hackett Medical College for Women, this College was located in Guangzhou, China, the College was aimed at the spreading of Christianity and modern medicine and the elevation of Chinese womens social status. During the Republic of China and earlier Chinese governments, women were legally bought and these women were known as Mui Tsai. The lives of Mui Tsai were recorded by American feminist Agnes Smedley in her book Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution. However, in 1949 the Republic of China had been overthrown by communist guerillas led by Mao Zedong, in May 1950 the Peoples Republic of China enacted the New Marriage Law to tackle the sale of women into slavery. This outlawed marriage by proxy and made legal so long as both partners consent. The New Marriage Law raised the age of marriage to 20 for men and 18 for women
11.
Sharia
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Sharia, Sharia law, or Islamic law is the religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran. In Arabic, the term refers to Gods divine law and is contrasted with fiqh. The manner of its application in modern times has been a subject of dispute between Muslim traditionalists and reformists, traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources of sharia, the Quran, sunnah, qiyas, and ijma. Traditional jurisprudence distinguishes two branches of law, ʿibādāt and muʿāmalāt, which together comprise a wide range of topics. Its rulings assign actions to one of five categories, mandatory, recommended, permitted, abhorred, thus, some areas of sharia overlap with the Western notion of law while others correspond more broadly to living life in accordance with God’s will. Historically, sharia was interpreted by independent jurists, ottoman rulers achieved additional control over the legal system by promulgating their own legal code and turning muftis into state employees. Non-Muslim communities had legal autonomy, except in cases of interconfessional disputes, in the modern era, sharia-based criminal laws were widely replaced by statutes inspired by European models. Judicial procedures and legal education in the Muslim world were brought in line with European practice. While the constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to sharia, legislative bodies which codified these laws sought to modernize them without abandoning their foundations in traditional jurisprudence. The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought along calls by Islamist movements for full implementation of sharia, including reinstatement of hudud corporal punishments, in some cases, this resulted in traditionalist legal reform, while other countries witnessed juridical reinterpretation of sharia advocated by progressive reformers. The role of sharia has become a contested topic around the world, attempts to impose it on non-Muslims have caused intercommunal violence in Nigeria and may have contributed to the breakup of Sudan. Some Muslim-minority countries in Asia, Africa and Europe recognize the use of sharia-based family laws for their Muslim populations, there are ongoing debates as to whether sharia is compatible with secular forms of government, human rights, freedom of thought, and womens rights. The word sharīʿah is used by Arabic-speaking peoples of the Middle East to designate a prophetic religion in its totality, for example, sharīʿat Mūsā means law or religion of Moses and sharīʿatu-nā can mean our religion in reference to any monotheistic faith. Within Islamic discourse, šarīʿah refers to regulations governing the lives of Muslims. For many Muslims, the word means simply justice, and they will consider any law that promotes justice, Muslims of different perspectives agree in their respect for the abstract notion of sharia, but they differ in how they understand the practical implications of the term. Classical sharia, the body of rules and principles elaborated by Islamic jurists during the first centuries of Islam, historical sharia, the body of rules and interpretations developed throughout Islamic history, ranging from personal beliefs to state legislation and varying across an ideological spectrum. Classical sharia has often served as a point of reference for these variants, Contemporary sharia, the full spectrum of rules and interpretations that are developed and practiced at present
12.
Culture of Afghanistan
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The culture of Afghanistan has been around for over two millennia, tracing record to at least the time of the Achaemenid Empire in 500 BCE. Afghanistan translates to Land of the Afghans or Place of Afghans in the official languages, Pashto. It is mostly a tribal and rural society with different regions of the country having their own native language, despite some differences, majority of the Afghans live by the same tradition and behave the same. For example, nearly all Afghans follow Islamic traditions, celebrate the holidays, dress the same, consume the same food. In the southern and eastern region, as well as western Pakistan which was part of Afghanistan. The western, northern, and central regions of Afghanistan are influenced by neighboring Central Asian and Persian cultures, some of the non-Pashtuns who live in close proximity with Pashtuns have adopted Pashtunwali in a process called Pashtunization while some Pashtuns and others became Persianized. Local art has spanned many centuries, the worlds oldest oil painting was found in Afghanistan. One of the most famous kinds is the Gandhara art between the 1st and 7th century based on Greco-Buddhist art, kamaleddin Behzad was a famous artist from Herat during the late Timurid and early Safavid periods. Since the 1900s, the nation began to use Western techniques in art, abdul Ghafoor Breshna was a prominent Afghan painter and sketch artist from Kabul during the 20th century. Afghanistans art was originally almost entirely done by men, but recently women are entering the programs at Kabul University. Art is largely centered at the National Museum of Afghanistan, the National Gallery of Afghanistan, there are a number of art schools in the country. The Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan in Kabul provides young people to learn contemporary paintings, traditionally, only women have been involved in theater acting. Recently, in arts, women have begun to take center stage. Other known forms of art in the country are music, poetry, the art of making carpets has been prominent for centuries. Afghanistan is known for making beautiful oriental rugs, the Afghan carpet has certain prints that make them unique to Afghanistan. Since the 1980s, the nation has witnessed several wars so music has been suppressed, during the 1990s, the Taliban government banned instrumental music and much public music-making. Many musicians and singers continued to play their trade in the cities of other countries, pakistani cities such as Peshawar, Karachi and Islamabad are important centers for the distribution of Afghan music. Kabul has long been the cultural capital, but outsiders have tended to focus on the cities of Herat
