For years, Arab's first ladies were completely absent from public life. But over the years things have changed drastically. From social work and intellectual reforms to sharing the responsibility of nation building with their husband's the women have enchanted the Arab world with their grace and elegance. And leading from the front are the three dynamic young ladies -- Syria's Asma al-Assad, Jordan's Queen Rania and Qatar's Sheikha Moza.
"I do not want to be known as wife of a terrorist or a man who has worked against the country," Asma, a resident of Azimabad village in Bihar's Bhojpur district said.
Being the wife of separatist turned mainstream Kashmir leader Sajad Lone and the daughter of one of the JKLF founder members Amanullah Khan, Asma Khan Lone, 34, has seen the Kashmir developments as an insider.
Rediff readers tell us how their best friends have stayed with them through the good and tough times.
Akhtaruzzaman Elias's The Raincoat describes the effect of the 1971 war on a college and on one of its teachers in particular.
In a letter to the Jammu and Kashmir DGP, Abdul Rashid Shora said, "I am under a constant threat of life from my daughter Shehla Rashid Shora who is supported by the elder daughter namely Asma Rashid and my wife namely Zubaida Shora as well as her security guard namely Sakib Ahmad. This threat perception started in 2017 when Shehla jumped all of a sudden into Kashmir politics."
'How will we pay for their education now?' asks a grandmother about her two grandchildren who lost their father in Mumbai's liquor tragedy.
Here's a first look at Malayalam film Salt N' Pepper.
Seven children were killed and nine others, including adults and minors, were injured in Burhanpur district of Madhya Pradesh when boundary wall of a religious place collapsed due to heavy rains, police said.
Radhika Vemula, Rohith's mother, who was accompanied by the 'dadis' and former JNU student Umar Khalid unfurled the national flag. They sang the national anthem along with thousands of people, including women and children who had gathered at Shaheen Bagh to celebrate the occasion.
The Pakistan army is running the foreign policy of the country and dictating vital policy decisions as it continued to be in power in the country, Asma Jahangir, the chief of Pakistan's top rights watchdog, has said.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on his first visit to India during which the two countries will discuss ways to enhance ties and sign two agreements, including one on avoidance of double taxation.
Bhutto had been handed down a seven-day detention order on November 13 at the residence of a Pakistan People's Party leader in Lahore to prevent her from leading a 'long march' to Islamabad against the emergency. Jahangir, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, was put under house arrest in her residence in Lahore shortly after President Pervez Musharraf proclaimed the emergency on November 3.
A top officer of the Indian Administrative Service in Uttar Pradesh is in trouble for holding a fashion show at his official bungalow in Lucknow.While Agriculture Production Commissioner Anis Ansari was given marching orders on Wednesday, his fashion designer wife Asma Hussein claimed that her husband had been targeted by an influential lobby.
He apologised to Asma Jehangir whose hotel room in New Delhi was searched by police without any warrant.
Pak chose India for the training because of its vast experience in treating AIDS patients and due to similarity in social conditions and cost effectiveness, Pakistan's National AIDS Control Programme Manager Asma Bukhari said.
Asma Khatoon said it is not biryani that has attracted women to the protest at Shaheen Bagh, while holding that such vilification campaigns will have no effect on the agitation.
On Sunday, a US airstrike in Fallujah killed 14 people and wounded three others, according to an Iraqi Health Ministry official for Anbar province.
The British runner clocked 30 minutes, 21 seconds to win the World's Best 10,000 road race.
The government of Pakistan, on Friday, withdrew its appeal filed against the Islamabad High Court's decision to reinstate Zaka Ashraf as the Chairman of the Cricket Board.
The triple talaq bill is against the provisions of the Constitution and violates the rights of women, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board said on Sunday, demanding its withdrawal.
Article 370 'was not a special status. It was a special discrimination. With its abrogation we have brought Kashmiris on par with Indians', he said.
Ansuya Dutt, who never stopped fighting for women's rights, can be an inspiration to us never to lose sight of our basic beliefs, never mind peer pressure.
A prominent Kashmiri leader, who was based in London before being deported to Pakistan in 1986, Khan was believed to have been the mastermind in the killing of Ravindra Mhatre, the number two in the Indian Consulate in Birmingham in 1984.
True Indian scenes most often lie on less travelled routes, along roads that have fallen off the map, after modern highways have come up. On the fourth leg of their 2,148 km journey, Rediff.com's Archana Masih and photographer Rajesh Karkera discover one such forgotten place in the Thar Desert.
As the battle between the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party over Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy continues, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Monday hit out at the National Democratic Alliance government saying it has no understanding of Nehru's values.
Pakistan's major political parties on Saturday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise visit to Lahore, saying it was a "new beginning of relations" and will help improve ties between the two countries.
The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board has, in its opposition to the move, submitted an affidavit to the apex court stating that though triple talaq is "undesirable", it is "permissible" in Islam.
Kulsoom, the wife of Sharif, died on Tuesday in London after a long battle with cancer. She was 68. Her body will be brought back and buried in the Jati Umra Lahore residence of the Sharif family.
In a veiled attack on Narendra Modi-led dispensation, Rahul Gandhi slammed those who were trying to "rub out" Jawaharlal Nehru from history as an international conference on the country's first prime minister affirmed that democracy, inclusion and empowerment espoused by him were of "enduring relevance".
The 68-year-old former first lady was diagnosed with lymphoma (throat) cancer in August 2017.
In an online chat with Get Ahead reader, overseas education consultant NNS Chandra addressed queries related to international admissions.
The Panama verdict will decide how Pakistan handles its leadership problems.
Slowing funding cycles for early-stage companies, freshers opting for more established firms, and many opting for places with better infrastructure are slowly taking away Koramangala's tag of 'India's Silicon Valley'.
The govt is also criticised for its choice of Khawar Qureshi, who represented Pakistan's case before the ICJ.
They needed a helping hand. And when they got it, these women worked wonders.
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