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Technology Opportunities
Information Session
Sunday, February 15, 1998 *6-8 p.m.
510 Rudder
Refreshments will be provided.
http://www.vtel.com
FRIi^pAN
improvisationcd comedy
We’ve got a heart on
for you
Saturday, Feb. 14
9 p.m. Rudder Theatre
Tickets are $4 in advance (MSC
BoxOffice)
http://http.tamu.edu :8000/~fsl ip
Thursday
Rival ethnic groj
clash over love
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — It
was a Shakespearean love story
playing out Wednesday in Pak
istan’s largest city: A young couple
from hostile ethnic communities
apparently ran off together, lead
ing to bloodshed and rioting.
Pathans went on a rampage in
Karachi, claiming a Mohajir man
kidnapped a Pathan woman. His
family says the couple eloped. Two
bystanders were killed, eight peo
ple were injured and the lovers
went into hiding.
The mob violence that spread
through the city raised fears of a re
vived blood feud among ethnic
Pathans and Mohajirs.
The Romeo of this tale is Kan-
war Ahson, a political activist of
the Mohajir Qami Movement
(MQM) and nephew of a Pakistani
member of parliament.
Two years ago, Ahson took refuge
for six months in the household of his
Juliet. Rifat Afridi. to evade a police
crackdown on the MQM, according
to published reports.
Tensions between the two com
munities then were at a low ebb, de
spite their antagonistic history'. In the
mid-1980s, about 1,000 people were
killed during months of violence that
began when a bus driven by a Pathan
struck and killed a Mohajir girl.
The Afridis reportedly refused to
let Ahson marry their daughter, say
ing she already was betrothed. Back
ing out would disgrace the family.
The couple, both in their 20s, dis
appeared last week. Police, who be-
Up in smoke
lieveshe left of hero;
they may have flee
miles north of LI’
council on MondavT
cial government 2b
c< >u| he and return;:-'
'IVvo senior pofo
fired Tuesday fori
the disappearance
appease Pathanev
deadline passed
the couple.
On Wednesday
hurst from shanty
middle-class rt |
smashing car \vi:
lights, stoningpass:; n |
luxury intematior - r 1
Stray gunfirekife
55-yeat old man-.: a|
Hahih (iul, a lab ^
passing by. H
Six policemen erl
a pc >lk evanandbea: cil
were injured becatK h[
get out ni their car of
alight — that indite
general strike by tk irj
Stores were (i I
on the street v c
smoke from bi pil
over parts of Kara )N
Police fired teat pi
ammunition intheani
mobs on the rutu
the violence had
radic incidents. .
Pathans, a con>-J t
group originally fe
northern Pakistan a
are the third-larges j
Karachi’s 13 million
Egyptian wom|
challenge tradit
CAIRO, Egyrpt (AP) — Dice tum
ble over backgammon boards,
cups slam on wooden tables and
the thick smoke from a gurgling
water pipe wafts into the night
time air.
What’s that peeking from be
hind the swelling smoke? Lipstick?
Long hair? Painted nails?
To the chagrin of many Egypt
ian men, women have taken up
the water pipe, long a tradition
that was the most masculine of
male habits, puffed in the thou
sands of cafes that serve as the
hub of men’s social life in the
Arab world’s biggest apd most
spirited city.
“In my opinion, it is sacrilege,”
declares Ahmed Sadiq, a waiter at
a cafe coated with a generation of
grime. “If women sit here, it’s not
natural. It goes against the nature
of Egyptians.”
In Cairo, there are cafes for the
deaf, there are cafes for literati,
and there are cafes for chess play
ers. There are all-night cafes, and
there are cafes where Cairenes run
their daily affairs.
For centuries, in those cafes, it
was a man’s world.
And in that world was the
smoke of the water pipe, known
alternatively as the shisha, nerjil-
la, arkila, qalyan or hooka. All
share the distinctive looping hose
that draws the smoke of burning,
syrupy tobacco through water and
into waiting lungs.
But recently, the shisha and the
style of smoking it has experi
enced a transformation, making it,
well, more feminine.
Once one of the easier ways to
catch hepatitis, the shisha now
comes with a removable plastic
mouthpiece known as a mabsam.
Even more striking is the ex
plosion in flavored tobacco that
has hit the upscalec
frequent — a far ti
days when honey-fltj
co was the mosti
might sample.
“I haveapple-flal
co, I have rose flavi
strawberry and
even have licoriceal
tail,” said Bahgatali
dor at the neighbt|
selling tobacco.
“Everyone has
mood,” he adds.
And his customer:
“There’s no mani
would smoke strawtl
apple,” he insists.''
would smoke these.!'!
the tobacco is lighte
are kind of fragile.”
At an npscalecafe|
Cairo’s five-star 1
woman in black veils
dently on a shishabl
11 a vo red tobacco.TM
and she knowinglf
plume of smoke thai*!
any male aficionado^
“Shisha is beau
mood,” said Mona^
witli her husband,
better than cigarettes'!
Such a scene firesti|
servative elements in'l
Many men still see!]
and indecent fot
smoke shisha, fid
ma’alima, the rough-*!
woman who runsap
borhood through anr evj
idation and gusto. Un .
Al-Haqiqa, a wee-
lamented the deed
came with young
wc > m e n smoking shisT.
“They smoke wiilf
ciousness every day
from 10 a.m. until -
newspaper intoned. \
Someone
misses you.
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