In 2003, I met Afghan President Hamid Karzai under somewhat unusual circumstances. The Rand Corporation, my employer, and Sesame Workshop had teamed up to create an Afghan version of Sesame Street. We were designing short video episodes to be shown to the new generation of post-Taliban Afghan school

It is important to begin with a clarification. The topic does not imply in any way that religion is only about protest and power. There is no denying that religion is far more complex and comprehensive than that. It embodies so many other dimensions of life. It speaks to death and the hereafter.

There is no power like girl power. This can’t ring more true when it comes to empowering young adolescent girls in rural India.
What began as self help girl group, a unique concept taken up by UNICEF Lucknow, today is one of the most powerful tools young adolescent girls are using to protect thems

On 8 March, International Women's Day marked women's accomplishments and challenges in achieving equality.
One of the most profound challenges women continue to face, however, is domestic violence, as painfully illustrated by the recent murder of Aasiya Zubair by her husband, Muzzamil, in New York

With Obama administration adopting a progressive outlook toward climate change, a consensus seems likely this year among the high income countries about post-Kyoto mitigation commitments. With growing realization that drastic and early greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cut will be necessary in order to

The 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) got an official kick start on the 8th of March, at the National Centre Of Performing Arts in Mumbai. The programme started with the typical Indian invocation to Lord Ganesha and goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati (may be in keeping with the Interna

Right now, a new kind of a battle is going on in India. For the first time since Independence, Muslims of a whole region right in India’s heartland—the district of Azamgarh in Poorvanchal (East Uttar Pradesh)—have launched an Independent mass movement. Till date, from its own resources, the Ulema Co

The season of Lent began on Ash Wednesday, with a reminder that, "Dust you are, and into dust you shall return" and as we pass through this season, we are reminded of God's divine love through the Stations of the Cross, Sundays of Lent that focuses on our renewal & reconciliation, the ministry of pr

The West seems stunned by the sudden turn of events in Pakistan. The Pakistani government recently negotiated a truce with The Movement for Enforcement of Shari’a (TNSM), endorsed by the local Taliban in Pakistan, to introduce shari’a-based law in the tribal Malakand area.
The Chief Minister of th

Morocco owes its image of a modern Muslim nation to Sufism, a spiritual and tolerant Islamic tradition that goes back to the first generations of Muslims and has sustained the religious, social and cultural cohesion of Moroccan society for centuries. Sufism provides answers to some of the most compl

Located at Shanthapuram, a township in the Mallapuram district some eighty kilometers from Calicut, the Jamia al-Islamiya is one of the largest Islamic seminaries in Kerala. Established in 1955 by activists associated with the Kerala unit of the Jamaat-e Islami, and considerably expanded since then

Whatever became of Sin?
Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. 1 Peter 3:18
For the next two Sundays I would like to speak on the subject, Whatever Became of Sin? The word sin has strong negative connotations. For many of us

The vitamin A supplementation of infants and children can potentially reduce child mortality by over 20 per cent, said Howard B. Schiffer, founder and President of Vitamin Angels in an interactive community health literacy programme organized hardly 25 kilometers away from the state council house of

-RTI Service centres will be set up in UP.
-200 computer cells will be constituted aswell in various districts to provide assistance to people wanting to get information online.
-Govt staff will be trained to update and feed the websites providing information of various departments.

The Right t

The new US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, identified Kashmir as one of the world’s hot spots and bracketed it with contested regions such as the Balkans and Golan Heights during her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations committee last month.
Likewise, in an interview with Tim