title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: The Electorate of Bavaria consisted of most of the modern regions of Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, and the Upper Palatinate. Before 1779, it also included the Innviertel, now part of modern Austria. This was ceded to the Habsburgs by the Treaty of Teschen, which ended the War of the Bavarian Succession. There were a considerable number of independent enclaves and jurisdictions within those broad areas, however, including the principalities of Palatinate-Neuburg and Palatinate-Sulzbach in the Upper Palatinate, which were held by cadet branches of the Palatinate line of the Wittelsbachs; the ecclesiastical states of Freising, Regensburg, and Passau, and the imperial free city of Regensburg. For administration purposes Bavaria was already from 1507 divided into four stewardships (""): Munich, Burghausen, Landshut and Straubing. With the acquisition of the Upper Palatinate during the Thirty Years' War the stewardship Amberg was added. In 1802 they were abolished by the minister Maximilian von Montgelas. In 1805 shortly before the elevation Tirol and Vorarlberg were united with Bavaria, same as several of these enclaves.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: By virtue of his electoral title, the Elector of Bavaria was a member of the Council of Electors in the Imperial Diet as well as Archsteward of the Holy Roman Empire; he also held the dignity of Imperial Vicar during imperial vacancies along with the Elector of Saxony, a duty he undertook in 1657–1658, 1740–1742, 1745, 1790, and 1792. In the Council of Princes of the Diet prior to the personal union of 1777 he held individual voices as Duke of Bavaria and (after 1770) Princely Landgrave of Leuchtenberg. In the Imperial Circles he was, along with the Archbishop of Salzburg, co-Director of the Bavarian Circle, a circle territorially dominated by the elector's lands. He also held lands in the Swabian Circle. After 1777 these lands were joined by all of the Palatine lands, including the Electorate of the Palatinate, the Duchies of Jülich and Berg, Palatinate-Neuburg, Palatinate-Sulzbach, Palatinate-Veldenz, and other territories.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: When he had succeeded to the throne of the duchy of Bavaria in 1597, Maximilian I had found it encumbered with debt and filled with disorder, but ten years of his vigorous rule effected a remarkable change. The finances and the judicial system were reorganised, a class of civil servants and a national militia founded, and several small districts were brought under the duke's authority. The result was a unity and order in the duchy which enabled Maximilian to play an important part in the Thirty Years' War; during the earlier years of which he was so successful as to acquire the Upper Palatinate and the electoral dignity which had been enjoyed since 1356 by the elder branch of the Wittelsbach family. In spite of subsequent reverses, Maximilian retained these gains at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the later years of this war Bavaria, especially the northern part, suffered severely. In 1632 the Swedes invaded, and when Maximilian violated the treaty of Ulm in 1647, the French and the Swedes ravaged the land. After repairing this damage to some extent, the elector died at Ingolstadt in September 1651, leaving his duchy much stronger than he had found it. The recovery of the Upper Palatinate made Bavaria compact; the acquisition of the electoral vote made it influential; and the duchy was able to play a part in European politics which internal strife had rendered impossible for the past four hundred years.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: Whatever lustre the international position won by Maximilian I might add to the ducal house, on Bavaria itself its effect during the next two centuries was more dubious. Maximilian's son, Ferdinand Maria (1651–1679), who was a minor when he succeeded, did much indeed to repair the wounds caused by the Thirty Years' War, encouraging agriculture and industries, and building or restoring numerous churches and monasteries. In 1669, moreover, he again called a meeting of the diet, which had been suspended since 1612.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: His constructive work, however, was largely undone by his son Maximilian II Emanuel (1679–1726), whose far-reaching ambition set him warring against the Ottoman Empire and, on the side of France, in the great struggle of the Spanish succession. He shared in the defeat at the Battle of Blenheim, near Höchstädt, on 13 August 1704; his dominions were temporarily partitioned between Austria and the elector palatine by the Treaty of Ilbersheim, and only restored to him, harried and exhausted, at the Treaty of Baden in 1714; the first Bavarian peasant insurrection, known as the "Bloody Christmas of Sendling", having been crushed by the Austrian occupators in 1706.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: Untaught by Maximilian II Emmanuel's experience, his son, Charles Albert (1726–1745), devoted all his energies to increasing the European prestige and power of his house. The death of the emperor Charles VI proved his opportunity: he disputed the validity of the Pragmatic Sanction which secured the Habsburg succession to Maria Theresa, allied himself with France, conquered Upper Austria, was crowned king of Bohemia at Prague and, in 1742, emperor at Frankfurt. The price he had to pay, however, was the occupation of Bavaria itself by Austrian troops; and, though the invasion of Bohemia in 1744 by Frederick II of Prussia enabled him to return to Munich, at his death on 20 January 1745 it was left to his successor to make what terms he could for the recovery of his dominions.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: Maximilian III Joseph (1745–1777), by the peace of Füssen signed on 22 April 1745, obtained the restitution of his dominions in return for a formal acknowledgment of the Pragmatic Sanction. He was a man of enlightenment, did much to encourage agriculture, industries and the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country, founded the Academy of Sciences at Munich, and abolished the Jesuit censorship of the press. At his death, without issue, on 30 December 1777, the Bavarian line of the Wittelsbachs became extinct, and the succession passed to Charles Theodore, the elector palatine. After a separation of four and a half centuries, the Electorate of the Palatinate, to which the duchies of Jülich and Berg had been added, was thus reunited with Bavaria.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: So great an accession of strength to a neighbouring state, whose ambition she had so recently had just reason to fear, proved intolerable to Austria, which laid claim to a number of lordships —forming one-third of the whole Bavarian inheritance – as lapsed fiefs of the Bohemian, Austrian, and imperial crowns. These were at once occupied by Austrian troops, with the secret consent of Charles Theodore himself, who was without legitimate heirs, and wished to obtain from the emperor the elevation of his natural children to the status of princes of the Empire. The protests of the next heir, Charles II, Duke of Zweibrücken (Deux-Ponts), supported by the king of Prussia, led to the War of Bavarian Succession. By the peace of Teschen (13 May 1779) the Innviertel was ceded to Austria, and the succession secured to Charles of Zweibrücken.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: For Bavaria itself Charles Theodore did less than nothing. He felt himself a foreigner among foreigners, and his favourite scheme, the subject of endless intrigues with the Austrian cabinet and the immediate cause of Frederick II's League of Princes (Fürstenbund) of 1785, was to exchange Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands and the title of king of Burgundy. For the rest, the enlightened internal policy of his predecessor was abandoned. The funds of the suppressed order of Jesus, which Maximilian Joseph had destined for the reform of the educational system of the country, were used to endow a province of the knights of St John of Jerusalem, for the purpose of combating the enemies of the faith. The government was inspired by the narrowest clericalism, which culminated in the attempt to withdraw the Bavarian bishops from the jurisdiction of the great German metropolitans and place them directly under that of the pope. On the eve of the Revolution the intellectual and social condition of Bavaria remained that of the Middle Ages.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: In 1792 French revolutionary armies overran the Palatinate; in 1795 the French, under Moreau, invaded Bavaria itself, advanced to Munich – where they were received with joy by the long-suppressed Liberals – and laid siege to Ingolstadt. Charles Theodore, who had done nothing to prevent wars or to resist the invasion, fled to Saxony, leaving a regency, the members of which signed a convention with Moreau, by which he granted an armistice in return for a heavy contribution (7 September 1796).Between the French and the Austrians, Bavaria was now in a bad situation. Before the death of Charles Theodore (16 February 1799) the Austrians had again occupied the country, in preparation for renewing the war with France. Maximilian IV Joseph (of Zweibrücken), the new elector, succeeded to a difficult inheritance. Though his own sympathies, and those of his all-powerful minister, Maximilian von Montgelas, were, if anything, French rather than Austrian, the state of the Bavarian finances, and the fact that the Bavarian troops were scattered and disorganized, placed him helpless in the hands of Austria; on 2 December 1800 the Bavarian arms were involved in the Austrian defeat at Hohenlinden, and Moreau once more occupied Munich. By the Treaty of Lunéville (9 February 1801) Bavaria lost the Palatinate and the duchies of Zweibrücken and Jülich.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: In view of the scarcely disguised ambitions and intrigues of the Austrian court, Montgelas now believed that the interests of Bavaria lay in a frank alliance with the French Republic; he succeeded in overcoming the reluctance of Maximilian Joseph; and, on 24 August, a separate treaty of peace and alliance with France was signed at Paris. By the third article of this the First Consul undertook to see that the compensation promised under the 7th article of the treaty of Lunéville for the territory ceded on the left bank of the Rhine, should be carried out at the expense of the Empire in the manner most agreeable to Bavaria (see de Martens, "Recueil", vol. vii. p. 365).


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: In 1803, accordingly, in the territorial rearrangements consequent on Napoleon's suppression of the ecclesiastical states, and of many free cities of the Empire, Bavaria received the bishoprics of Würzburg, Bamberg, Augsburg and Freisingen, part of that of Passau, the territories of twelve abbeys, and seventeen cities and villages, the whole forming a compact territory which more than compensated for the loss of her outlying provinces on the Rhine. Montgelas now aspired to raise Bavaria to the rank of a first-rate power, and he pursued this object during the Napoleonic epoch with consummate skill, allowing fully for the preponderance of France – so long as it lasted – but never permitting Bavaria to sink, like so many of the states of the Confederation of the Rhine, into a mere French dependency.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: In September 1805, Bavaria signed the Bogenhausen Treaty with France. The primary consequence of the treaty was Bavaria's military support for Napoleon. Bavarian troops under General Wrede fought the Austrians at Iglau in Bohemia, which contributed to the simultaneous French victory at Austerlitz on 2 December 1805.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: In the war of 1805, in accordance with a treaty of alliance signed at Würzburg on 23 September, Bavarian troops, for the first time since the days of Charles VII, fought side by side with the French, and by the Treaty of Pressburg, signed on 26 December, the Principality of Eichstädt, the Margravate of Burgau, the Lordship of Vorarlberg, the countships of Hohenems and Königsegg-Rothenfels, the lordships of Argen and Tettnang, and the city of Lindau with its territory were to be added to Bavaria. On the other hand, Würzburg, obtained in 1803, was to be ceded by Bavaria to the elector of Salzburg in exchange for Tirol . By the 1st article of the treaty the emperor already acknowledged the assumption by the elector of the title of king, as Maximilian I. The price which Maximilian had reluctantly to pay for this accession of dignity was the marriage of his daughter Augusta with Eugène de Beauharnais.


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: The electorate existed until 1806, when Bavaria was proclaimed a kingdom. It had its origins in the Franco-Bavarian Treaty of Brno of 10-12 December 1805 and in the Peace of Pressburg on 26 December 1805 between the plenipotentiaries of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and the Roman-German and Austrian Emperor Franz II. /I concluded peace treaty, because Austria now had to cede the counties of Tyrol and Vorarlberg to Bavaria. Duke and Elector Maximilian IV Joseph was proclaimed Maximilian I Joseph on 1 January 1806 in Munich as the first king of Bavaria. From 1 January 1806, the Bavarian royal title initially read:


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: "By the grace of God, King of Bavaria, Archpalatine Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Archtruchsess and Elector."


title: Electorate of Bavaria

text: The formal exit of Bavaria from the Reich association, renouncing the electoral dignity, did not take place until July 1806 with the Rheinbund Act. The new King still served as an Elector until Bavaria left the Holy Roman Empire (1 August 1806). On 15 March 1806 Max Joseph had ceded the Duchy of Berg to Napoleon. Shortly thereafter, the Confederation of the Rhine was formed and Maximilian Joseph, with the other princes who joined that body, announced his secession from the Holy Roman Empire. On 6 August 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved after surviving for a thousand years.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The Nicene Creed, composed in part and adopted at the First Council of Nicaea (325) and revised with additions by the First Council of Constantinople (381), is a creed that summarizes the orthodox faith of the Christian Church and is used in the liturgy of most Christian Churches. This article endeavors to give the text and context of English-language translations.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The International Consultation on English Texts published an English translation of the Nicene Creed, first in 1970 and then in successive revisions in 1971 and 1975. These texts were adopted by several churches. The Roman Catholic Church in the United States, which adopted the 1971 version in 1973, and the Catholic Church in other English-speaking countries, which in 1975 adopted the version published in that year, continued to use them until 2011. The 1975 version was included in the 1978 "Lutheran Book of Worship", the 1979 Episcopal Church (United States) "Book of Common Prayer", though in both cases with one variation: in the line "For us men and for our salvation", they omitted the word "men." The ICET text and the versions adapted by various denominations use the plural "we" form which corresponds to the original text from the Council of Nicea (325 CE) and the Council of Constantinople (381 CE) which begin the creed with Πιστεύομεν (Greek, "pisteuomen", "we believe"). This is the ICET version currently used in The Episcopal Church (as of 1979).


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC), the successor body to ICET, published in 1988 the book "Praying Together", which included a revision of the 1975 ICET text. Variations of this text are gaining acceptance among mainline Protestant churches: it is used by the Methodist Church with little if any change, and by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Other denominations use it with modifications that vary between the churches: see, for instance, the discussion within The ELLC Texts: A Survey of Use and Variation, which does not include recent use of the ELLC text by the ELCA in "Evangelical Lutheran Worship" (2006).


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The translation for use in Mass of the Roman Rite is found in the Order of Mass. It begins "Credo" – "I believe" – and is a personal (not congregational) affirmation of faith. The Nicene Creed as found on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website is as follows:


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: Within the Latin Church, the Ordinariate Form of the Roman Rite uses the following translation, taken from the "Book of Common Prayer":


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The Ruthenian Catholic Church, a "sui iuris" Eastern Catholic Church, uses a text which was previously found on their website but has now been archived.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The Ukrainian Catholic Church, a "sui iuris" Eastern Catholic Church professes the Nicene Creed in the following way:


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church has an English translation of the Nicene Creed. It goes as follows:


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all the world. Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made: who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified also for us in the days of Pontius Pilate. Suffered and died was buried. The third day He rose again by His Father’s holy will, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead and of His kingdom, there will be no end.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets and apostles.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins and look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the new life of the world to come. Amen.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The text used by the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America may be found at their website.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The 1979 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America version has the 1975 ecumenical (ICET) version (see above). The version in the Church of England's "Common Worship" of 2000 is the 1988 ecumenical (ELLC) version, but amended at the "Incarnatus" to read: "was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man." The Anglican Church of Canada's Book of Alternative Services (1985) uses the 1975 ICET version, but unusually, it omits the "Filioque" ("and the Son") phrase in accordance with the Statement, and the Anglican-Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Commission. But in many churches of the Anglican Communion the version in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is still the one in use:


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The version above, except with modernized spelling of "Catholic" and "Apostolic", is found in the 1928 (American) Book of Common Prayer, and in the Anglo-Catholic devotional manual Saint Augustine's Prayer Book (1947 and 1967 editions). The 1979 American Book of Common Prayer, in the celebration of The Holy Eucharist: Rite One, provides for the use of either the 1975 ICET version or the traditional version, identical to that found in the 1928 Prayer Book.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The version in "Evangelical Lutheran Worship" (2006) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) is the 1988 ecumenical (ELLC) version. But the "Lutheran Service Book" (2006) of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) uses that of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer with slight changes, substituting the word "Christian" for "catholic" and modernizing the spelling of the word "apostolic", with changes in capitalization of this and other words, and with "Holy Spirit" in place of "Holy Ghost".


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The "Trinity Hymnal" of 1990, published by the Presbyterian Church in America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, contains an updated language version of the 1662 "Book of Common Prayer" translation; this is used by those denominations and some others.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) uses a slightly different version as subscribed in their Book of Confessions.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: "We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen."


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: While working towards the 1975 ecumenical text given above, the International Consultation on English Texts (ICET) published a version, which the Roman Catholic Church in the United States adopted in its English version of the Roman Missal, in use from 1973 to 2011.


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: "One in Being with the Father" (1973), which, when spoken, could be confused with "one, in being with the Father", was replaced in the 1975 version by "of one Being with the Father".


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: "He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man" was altered in 1975 to "He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man": neither Greek "σαρκωθέντα" nor Latin "incarnatus" means "born", and the 1973 text linked hominization ("became man") with birth ("he was born").


title: English versions of the Nicene Creed

text: "He suffered, died, and was buried" was replaced in 1975 by "he suffered death and was buried": "παθόντα" in Greek and "passus" in Latin are indicative of a suffering demise; but the 1973 text inserted an extra verb, "died", not present in the original Greek or Latin.


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a 2013 biographical film directed by Justin Chadwick from a script written by William Nicholson and starring Idris Elba and Naomie Harris. The film is based on the 1995 autobiographical book "Long Walk to Freedom" by anti-apartheid revolutionary and former South African President Nelson Mandela.


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: Based on South African President Nelson Mandela's autobiography of the same name, which chronicles his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison before becoming President of South Africa and working to rebuild the country which was ravaged by Apartheid.


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: Producer Anant Singh started working on the project after interviewing Mandela while he was still imprisoned two decades prior. Following the publication of Mandela's autobiography, Singh was granted the rights to the film adaptation, which was completed 16 years later by screenwriter William Nicholson. The film is directed by Justin Chadwick.


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: For the film, U2 wrote the song "Ordinary Love". Subscribers of the band's official website were able to hear a short snippet first.


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: The film held its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2013. It was released on 28 November 2013 in South Africa and on 3 January 2014 in the United Kingdom, a week before and a month after Mandela died, respectively.


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: "Long Walk to Freedom" premiered in London on 5 December 2013 as a Royal Film Performance, an event held in aid of the Film & TV Charity, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were in attendance, along with Mandela's daughters Zindzi and Zenani. The announcement of the death of Nelson Mandela occurred while the film was being screened; The Duke and Duchess were immediately informed of Nelson's passing, while producer Anant Singh (alongside Idris Elba) took the stage during the closing credits to inform patrons of Mandela's passing, and held a moment of silence. Prince William made brief comments to the press while exiting the theatre, stating that "I just wanted to say it's extremely sad and tragic news. We were just reminded what an extraordinary and inspiring man Nelson Mandela was. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family right now." The film was temporarily pulled from theatres in South Africa the next day out of respect, but returned on 7 December 2013. On 8 December to mark the launch of the film a Gala dinner, private screening and charity auction in aid of the children's charity Onetoonechildrensfund. Sir Trevor McDonald was Master of Ceremonies for the evening, introducing the auction where one of a limited edition of 6 portrait heads of Nelson Mandela, sculpted from life by David Cregeen. The head was donated by the sculptor and sold in aid of the charity's work in South Africa.


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 61% based on 142 reviews, with an average rating of 6.21/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It might be too respectful to truly soar, but there's no denying Idris Elba's impressive work in "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" -- or the inspirational power of the life it depicts." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film has an average score of 60 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: Scott Foundas of "Variety" said the film "never opts for a light touch when a sledgehammer will do", but also praises Elba for "a towering performance, a Mandela for the ages".


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: Claudia Puig of "USA Today" agreed that Elba's performance was powerful but felt the film was not as strong, stating, "Earnest and ambitious, the film suffers from trying to squeeze in too many milestones of Nelson Mandela's long life as he worked to end the oppressive regime of apartheid in South Africa. But the talent of the lead actors lends it heft, particularly the commanding performance of Idris Elba as Mandela."


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: Jordan Hoffman from Film.com also gave the film a mixed to negative review: ""Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" should have been a layup. A slow burn leading to eventual triumph, moving speeches, Idris Elba raging against injustice, the world made a better place because of one man's sacrifice. But as crazy and offensive as it may sound, you'll get more chills from Elba's idiotic speech about canceling the apocalypse in "Pacific Rim" than you will in this by-the-numbers bore."


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: However, Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film a generally positive review with 2 and a half out of 4 stars, mostly circling the performances.


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: Screenwriter William Nicholson claimed it didn't do better because of the movie "12 Years a Slave": "12 Years a Slave came out in America and that sucked up all the guilt about black people that was available. They were so exhausted feeling guilty about slavery that I don't think there was much left over to be nice about our film." He also speculated that the death of Mandela resulted in a Mandela "overdose" among people, so that they have had enough of him when the movie finally hit the theatres; "Suddenly the word came through that he died. We were deluged with Mandela stuff and after a week we all thought, please, take it away, we've heard enough about Mandela."


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: Vincent Hiribarren, a lecturer in world history at King's College London, notes in his review of the film for History Extra, the website of BBC History Magazine: "[The film] clearly depicted Mandela's understanding of the apartheid years. Or, at least, what he wanted to let us know. As the film is not based on Mandela's life but on Mandela's own words, criticism levelled at Mandela's autobiography can also be directed at the film."


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: The film was noted by many for the lack of resemblance Idris Elba had to Mandela. While calling him a "terrific actor", "The Guardian" criticised the film for the casting of Elba, of West African descent from Ghana and Sierra Leone, as the Xhosa Mandela, because Elba "looks nothing like the man he portrays".


title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

text: Turning to the 1976 Soweto uprising, Hiribarren said that the film "did not spend much time evoking this pivotal event, because Mandela did not say much about Soweto in his book. The Soweto uprising was, however, instrumental in creating a new political climate in South Africa that directly led to the politicisation of many young South Africans."


title: UnHerd

text: "UnHerd" was founded in 2017 by conservative British political activist Tim Montgomerie, who also acted as editor. Following Montgomerie's departure in September 2018, journalist Sally Chatterton, who previously wrote for "The Daily Telegraph" and "The Independent", took over as editor. Freddie Sayers joined the magazine in 2019 as executive editor, having previously been editor-in-chief of YouGov and founder of the British news and current affairs website "Politics Home". , the website lists 23 staff.


title: UnHerd

text: Its columnists include Giles Fraser, Justin Webb, Carl Miller, Ed West, Tanya Gold, John Gray, James Bloodworth, Matthew Goodwin, Maurice Glasman, Julie Bindel, Meghan Murphy, Michael Tracey, Douglas Murray, Paul Embery and Ian Birrell.


title: UnHerd

text: In March 2020, "UnHerd" launched a YouTube channel named LockdownTV, taking its name from the lockdowns implemented around the same time period. The channel posts interviews conducted by Sayers.


title: UnHerd

text: The website initially existed without a paywall, as it is funded by an endowment from British investor Paul Marshall. In 2017, "New Statesman" reported that the site intended to introduce paid services. In May 2020, the site said that it intended to switch to a subscription model later that year. As of November 2022, it offers readers a limited number of articles for free.


title: UnHerd

text: When the site was launched in July 2017, Simon Childs in "Vice" was critical of the underlying premise, saying: "The social media news cycle can be a jading stream of ill-informed narcissists, but it's refreshing to be reminded that at least it offers a more diverse outlook than Tim Montgomerie funded by an oligarch publishing the kind of people who are generally 'unheard' because people edge away from them at parties." Jasper Jackson writing for "New Statesman" was also skeptical of "UnHerd"s promotion of slow journalism, saying "the idea "UnHerd" is offering a groundbreaking solution to information overload is faintly ludicrous."


title: UnHerd

text: In 2020, Ian Burrell, writing in the "i", noted that "UnHerd" pieces can run to 2,000 words in length, presenting multiple sides of an argument and pursuing an "approach to digital journalism [that] is counter to the notion that only extreme views can generate traffic"; he compared the website to Tortoise Media, another "slower-paced news experiment that defies the catch-all notion of the media." Later that year, in a piece on the media's lack of diversity, Burrell noted "Guardian" journalist Suzanne Moore's claim on "UnHerd" that she had been "forced out of "The Guardian" for challenging its consensus on feminism and transgender rights. Headlined 'Why I had to Leave "The Guardian"', the piece was subtitled: 'If you were bullied by 338 colleagues, what would you do?'"


title: UnHerd

text: In 2021, an "UnHerd" piece criticising the World Health Organization for dismissing the possibility of a virus leak from a Wuhan laboratory in its Covid-19 investigation was marked by Facebook with a "false information" tag; Facebook apologised after "UnHerd" objected. Reporting the incident, the "Financial Times" noted that three days later the White House expressed "deep concerns" about the WHO investigation.


title: UnHerd

text: In 2022, the "New Statesman" and "The Times" reported on an "UnHerd" piece by another "Guardian" journalist, Hadley Freeman, in which she suggested her paper was allowing itself to be bullied over transgender issues. Later that year, Conor Friedersdorf in "The Atlantic" featured an "UnHerd" piece by Paul Kingsnorth as "Provocation of the Week". Kingsnorth argued that "Left-modernism is now the outlook of the professional managerial classes, the top 10% or so of society, and—not coincidentally—the beneficiary class of globalisation. [...] Meanwhile, a national populist movement built largely around a working- and lower-middle-class reaction to this ideology is coalescing [...] Why would the middle classes be further to the “Left” than the workers?"


title: UnHerd

text: In July 2022, "UnHerd" reported that a Ukrainian government body set up to counter "misinformation" had compiled a list of politicians and intellectuals in multiple countries who they believed were promoting "Russian propaganda", sparking coverage in publications including "Newsweek and" "The Indian Express". The list included "Republican Senator Rand Paul, former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, military and geopolitical analyst Edward N. Luttwak, realist political scientist John Mearsheimer and heterodox journalist Glenn Greenwald" as well as the former chair of the Indian National Security Advisory Board. The "UnHerd" report included responses from Luttwak, Mearsheimer and Greenwald.


title: Brain (computer virus)

text: Brain is the industry standard name for a computer virus that was released in its first form on 19 January 1986, and is considered to be the first computer virus for the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and compatibles.


title: Brain (computer virus)

text: Brain affects the PC by replacing the boot sector of a floppy disk with a copy of the virus. The real boot sector is moved to another sector and marked as bad. Infected disks usually have five kilobytes of bad sectors. The disk label is usually changed to ©Brain, and the following text can be seen in infected boot sectors:


title: Brain (computer virus)

text: There are many minor and major variations to that version of the text. The virus slows down the floppy disk drive and makes seven kilobytes of memory unavailable to DOS. Brain was written by Amjad Farooq Alvi and Basit Farooq Alvi, who at the time lived in Chah Miran, near Lahore Railway Station, in Lahore, Pakistan. The brothers told "Time" magazine they had written it to protect their medical software from illegal copying, and it was supposed to target copyright infringement only. The cryptic message "Welcome to the Dungeon", a safeguard and reference to an early programming forum on Dungeon BBS, appeared after a year because the brothers licensed a beta version of the code. The brothers could not be contacted to receive the final release of this version of the program.


title: Brain (computer virus)

text: Brain lacks code for dealing with hard disk partitioning, and avoids infecting hard disks by checking the most significant bit of the BIOS drive number being accessed. Brain does not infect the disk if the bit is set, unlike other viruses at the time, which paid no attention to disk partitioning and consequently destroyed data stored on hard disks by treating them in the same way as floppy disks. Brain often went undetected, partially due to this deliberate non-destructiveness, especially when the user paid little to no attention to the low speed of floppy disk access.


title: Brain (computer virus)

text: The virus came complete with the brothers' address and three phone numbers, and a message that told the user that their machine was infected and to call them for inoculation:


title: Brain (computer virus)

text: This program was originally used to track a heart monitoring program for the IBM PC, and people were distributing illicit copies of the disks. This tracking program was supposed to stop and track illegal copies of the disk, however the program also sometimes used the last five kilobytes on an Apple floppy, making additional saves to the disk by other programs impossible.


title: Brain (computer virus)

text: When the brothers began to receive a large number of phone calls from people in the United Kingdom, the United States, and elsewhere, demanding that they disinfect their machines, they were stunned and tried to explain to the outraged callers that their motivation had not been malicious. Their phone lines were overloaded. The brothers, with another brother, Shahid Farooq Alvi, continued business in Pakistan, as Brain NET Internet service providers with a company called Brain Telecommunication Limited.


title: Brain (computer virus)

text: In 2011, 25 years after Brain was released, Mikko Hyppönen of F-Secure traveled to Pakistan to interview Amjad for a documentary. Being inspired by this documentary and its wide spread, a group of Pakistani bloggers interviewed Amjad, under the banner of Bloggerine.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: The Land Component (, ) is the land branch of the Belgian Armed Forces. The King of the Belgians is the commander in chief. The current chief of staff of the Land Component is Major-General Pierre Gérard.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: A major reorganisation of the army had been authorised by the government in 1912, providing for a total army of 350,000 men by 1926 - 150,000 in the field forces, 130,000 in fortress garrisons and 70,000 reserves and auxiliaries. At the outbreak of war this reorganisation was nowhere near complete and only 117,000 men could be mobilised for the field forces, with the other branches equally deficient.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: The Commander-in-Chief was King Albert I, with Lieutenant-General Chevalier Antonin de Selliers de Moranville as the Chief of the General Staff from 25 May 1914 until 6 September 1914 when a Royal Decree abolished the function of Chief of Staff of the army. In this way the King secured his control of the command.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: In addition, there were garrisons at Antwerp, Liège and Namur, each placed under the command of the local divisional commander.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: Each division contained three mixed brigades (of two infantry regiments and one artillery regiment), one cavalry regiment, and one artillery regiment, as well as various support units. Each infantry regiment contained three battalions, with one regiment in each brigade having a machine-gun company of six guns. An artillery regiment had three batteries of four guns.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: The nominal strength of a division varied from 25,500 to 32,000 all ranks, with a total strength of eighteen infantry battalions, a cavalry regiment, eighteen machine-guns, and forty-eight guns. Two divisions (the 2nd and 6th) each had an additional artillery regiment, for a total of sixty guns.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: The Cavalry Division had two brigades of two regiments each, three horse artillery batteries, and a cyclist battalion, along with support units; it had a total strength of 4,500 all ranks with 12 guns, and was - in effect - little more than a reinforced brigade.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: In 1940, the King of Belgium was the commander in chief of the Belgian Army which had 100,000 active-duty personnel; its strength could be raised to 550,000 when fully mobilized. The army was composed of seven infantry corps, that were garrisoned at Brussels, Antwerp, and Liège, and two divisions of partially-mechanized cavalry Corps at Brussels and the Ardenne. The Corps was as follows:


title: Belgian Land Component

text: Each Army Corps had its own headquarters staff, two active and several reserve Infantry Divisions, Corps Artillery Regiment of four battalions of two batteries with 16 artillery pieces per battalion, and a Pioneer regiment.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: Each infantry division had a divisional staff along with three infantry regiments, each of 3,000 men. Each regiment had 108 light machine guns, 52 heavy machine guns, nine heavy mortars or infantry gun howitzers, plus six antitank guns.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: Within the Free Belgian Forces that were formed in Great Britain during the occupation of Belgium between 1940–45, there was a land force formation, the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade. An additional three divisions were raised and trained in Northern Ireland, but the war ended before they could see action. However, they joined the initial Belgian occupation force in Germany, I Belgian Corps, whose headquarters moved to Luedenscheid in October 1946. Of the 75,000 troops that found themselves in Germany on 8 May 1945, the vast majority had been recruited after the liberation of Belgium.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: During the Cold War, Belgium provided the I Belgian Corps (HQ Haelen Kaserne, Junkersdorf, Lindenthal (Cologne)), consisting of the 1st Infantry Division in Liège and 16th Mechanised Division in Neheim-Hüsten, to NATO's Northern Army Group for the defence of West Germany. There were also two reserve brigades (10th Mechanised Brigade, Limbourg, and the 12th Motorised Brigade, Liège), slightly bigger than the four active brigades, which were intended as reinforcements for the two divisions. Interior forces comprised the Para-Commando Regiment in Heverlee, three national defence light infantry battalions (5th Chasseurs Ardennais, 3rd Carabiniers-cyclists, and 4th Carabiniers-cyclists), four engineer battalions, and nine provincial regiments with two to five light infantry battalions each. (Isby and Kamps, 1985, 64, 72)


title: Belgian Land Component

text: After the end of the Cold War, forces were reduced. Initial planning in 1991 called for a Belgian-led corps with 2 or 4 Belgian brigades, a German brigade, and possibly a U.S. brigade. However, by 1992 this plan was looking unlikely and in 1993 a single Belgian division with two brigades became part of the Eurocorps.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: The Land Component is organised as 1 Brigade and 1 Special Operations Regiment. In total, the Land Component consists of almost 10,000 active military personnel (as of 2019). After the 2018 reforms, the ground forces are organised as follows:


title: Belgian Land Component

text: COMPONSLAND (the HQ of the Land Component) It oversees and plans all activities and operations of the land component.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: Some of the regiments in the Land Component, such as the Regiment 12th of the Line Prince Leopold - 13th of the Line, have names consisting of multiple elements. This is the result of a series of amalgamations that took place over the years. The Regiment 12th of the Line Prince Leopold - 13th of the Line was created in 1993 as a result of the merger of the 12th Regiment of the Line Prince Leopold and the 13th Regiment of the Line.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: The Belgian Army went through a major re-equipment programme for most of its vehicles. The aim was to phase out all tracked vehicles in favour of wheeled vehicles. As of 2010, the tank units were to be disbanded or amalgamated with the Armored Infantry (two infantry companies and one tank squadron per battalion). Forty Leopard 1 tanks were to be sold. As of 2013, only some M113 variants (Radar, recovery, command posts, and driving school vehicles) and Leopard variants (Recovery, AVLB, Pionier, driving tanks) will remain in service.


title: Belgian Land Component

text: The Leopard 1A5 tank was retired on 10 September 2014. 56 of the tanks were sold, about 24 will stay as historic monuments or serve as a museum pieces; the rest will be phased out or used for target practice. In 2008 a sale of 43 Leopard 1A5(BE) to Lebanon was concluded, but as of 2018 was not finalized due to "the absence of licensing for export from Germany."


title: Belgian Land Component

text: In the strategical defense vision report of the Belgian government, it was stated that by 2030 the Belgian land component will invest in new modern equipment such as weapons, vehicles, communication assets, body armor and more.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: The Quran, the holy book of Islam, indicates that both men and women are spiritually equal. The states:


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: However, this notion of equality has not been reflected in several laws in Muslim-based institutions.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: The Quran does not specify gender roles for women, but Islamic practice does. This is partially because men and women are at times allotted different rights and cultural expectations. Hadith Sahih Bukhari (9:89:252) states that a man is expected to be the “guardian of [his] family,” whereas a woman is expected to be the “guardian of her husband’s home and his children.”


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Cultural traditions often impact gender roles, prevailing cultural norms, and the interpretation of the Quran and other Islamic texts.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Some reformist and feminist scholars argue that the concept of guardianship has formed the basis of particular gender roles in Muslim societies. Women are often expected to be obedient wives and mothers, staying within the familial environment. Meanwhile, men are expected to be the protectors and caretakers of their families. However, the majority of Muslim scholars agree that women are not obligated to serve their husbands, do housework, or do any kind of work at home. In Shari'a, it is regarded as permissible for a woman to go out for work if she has the consent of her husband. If there is no mutual consent, then it is not permissible for her to go out and work. Until the period of the rise of Islam, there were many ideas of certain actions and behaviors of women that should be expected that were considered traditional gender roles. Women were seen as inferior to men, and women were supposed to behave and respect men. In earlier times, women were seen as the housekeepers and relied on their husbands to protect them since they were not strong enough to take care of themselves.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: According to Sayyid Qutb, a prominent member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and 1960s, the Quran "gives the man the right of 'guardianship' or 'superiority' over the family structure to prevent dissension and friction between the spouses. The equity of this system lies in the fact that God both favored the man with the necessary qualities and skills for the 'guardianship' and also charged him with the duty to provide for the structure's upkeep." Qutb's ideologies are still impactful for radical Islamists today, influencing such prominent Middle Eastern leaders as Ayman Zawahiri and terrorists as Osama bin Laden.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: In Islamic culture, the roles played by men and women are equally important. Gender roles viewed from an Islamic perspective are based on the Qur'an and emphasize the dynamic structure of the family. As in any socio-cultural group, gender roles vary depending on the conservative or liberal nature of the specific group.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Although there are no elaborate roles for men and women in the Qur'an, it is strongly implied that each gender provides equally significant contributions to the family realm.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Chapter 4, in verse 34, in the Qur'an, states that "men are the maintainers of women," due to them providing for their family. It is implied that a noble "husband’s responsibilities commit him to support his wife and children, provide education for his offspring, be kind and attentive to his spouse, and be good to his affine”. These values have remained rather consistent throughout the history of Islam. It is culturally understood that women do, and should, rely on men. This is viewed not as a restricting reliance, but as an arrangement to protect women from the distress and inconveniences of the public arenas. It is because of this ideology that women traditionally do not contribute to the household financially, leaving men to be the sole breadwinners.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: The woman's role in the home, although different from that of men, is also of great value and importance in Islamic culture. In earlier times, from a very young age, girls traditionally grew up in the women's quarters of the house called the "harem". The harem was that part of the house where the female members of the family and household lived. It was normally out of bounds to all males except the master of the house, his sons and perhaps a physician. Here, young girls were familiarized with domestic activities and were taught Islamic laws and values.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Several passages of the Quran deal with acceptable dress standards for both men and women. Surah 24, Verses 30-31 states:


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: "And tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest. That is purer for them and tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to [those relatives who fall within bounds of close relationship explained in the Qur’an (i.e. the Mahrams)]..."


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: In Iran, breaking the Islamic dress code or participation in perceived cross dressing is a crime resulting in imprisonment.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: For Friday prayers, by custom, Muslim's congregations segregate men, women, and children into separate groups. On other days, the women and children pray at home. Men are expected to offer the five times daily prayers at the nearest mosque. Muhammad specifically allowed Muslim women to attend mosques and pray behind men. Mohammad said, "Do not prevent your wife(s) from going to the mosque, even though their houses are better for them," which implies women are recommended to stay at home. "A woman’s prayer in her house is better than her prayer in her courtyard, and her prayer in her bedroom is better than her prayer in her house." (Reported by Abu Dawud in al-Sunan, Baab maa jaa’a fee khurooj al-nisaa’ ilaa’l-masjid. See also Saheeh al-Jaami‘, no. 3833).


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Surveys have shown a widespread belief, particularly in Mali, Mauritania, Guinea, and Egypt, that FGM is a religious requirement. Gruenbaum has argued that practitioners may not distinguish between religion, tradition, and chastity, making it difficult to interpret the data. FGM's origins in northeastern Africa are pre-Islamic, but the practice became associated with Islam because of that religion's focus on female chastity and seclusion. There is no mention of it in the Quran. It is praised in a few "daʻīf" (weak) "hadith" (sayings attributed to Muhammad) as noble but not required, although it is regarded as obligatory by the Shafi'i version of Sunni Islam. In 2007 the Al-Azhar Supreme Council of Islamic Research in Cairo ruled that FGM had "no basis in core Islamic law or any of its partial provisions".


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Sexuality, as discussed in Islamic texts is generally confined to the context of heterosexual marriage, and in all cases, modesty and chastity are strongly encouraged. Premarital sex and same-gender sex are forbidden and abortion is highly discouraged, except in cases where there are medical risks for the mother. Sexuality in Islam is often separated in terms of male versus female sexuality, marital versus premarital versus extramarital sexuality, and heterosexuality versus homosexuality as is pointed out by Abdessamad Dialmy.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: The Islamic tradition recognizes the sexual desires of both men and women. According to Kecia Ali, "Classical texts note the importance of female fulfillment while stressing the wives' duty to remain sexually available to their husbands... whereas contemporary authors focus on women's sexual rights within their marriages, attempting to prove the importance of female pleasure by highlighting the separation of sex from reproduction and the importance of the female orgasm." Classical authors also stress the importance of male guardianship, as it is required to protect the chastity and modesty of women in their care.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Islam considers the heterosexual relationship (marital or female slave without marriage) between a man and a woman- the only acceptable relationship. Within this traditional relationship, the male is allowed more room for expression of his sexual rights than the female is, as mentioned above. There are three types of heterosexual relationships: premarital, marital, and extramarital.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Pre-marital sex is frowned upon in general. However, in Islamic law, there are strict regulations on men and women to keep themselves pure, i.e. a virgin, and only indulge in sexual intercourse after marriage with their partner. Men and women are advised to abstain from indulging in indiscriminate sexual relationships for the mere satisfaction of carnal desires. Marriage is the only acceptable means to indulge in sexual relationships, any other relationship is considered as "Zina", one of the major sins in Islam.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: In Islamic marital practices, the male pays a bride-price/dower to his wife, known as the Mahr, which is one of the essentials of marriage. Other essentials are the presence of two witnesses and the 'Wali', or guardian of the bride. A marriage is not considered valid without 'Sadaq', 'Wali', and 'Shahidain' (dower, guardian, and witnesses). The bride-price is a fixed amount of money, jewelry, or property that is given to the bride as her own. A Muslim marriage is usually solemnized in the mosque before an imam, where guardians of both parties appear on their behalf (especially that of the female) and the marriage is announced after payment of the Sadaq. It is not a contract that needs to be signed by either of the parties.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Traditional Islamic schools of thought, as based on the Quran and Hadith, consider same-gender sex to be a punishable sin. In much of the Islamic world, homosexuality is not legal, and in Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, homosexual acts are punishable by death. Most Muslim-majority countries continue to oppose LGBT rights movements, with the exceptions of Albania and Sierra Leone. In Albania, Turkey, Bahrain, Jordan, and Mali, homosexual intercourse is legal, and there is some discussion of legalizing same-sex marriage in Albania and Mozambique (the latter being a Muslim-minority country).


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: In Iran and other Islamic countries, a common perception of transgender women --discovered in a 2019 study by Zara Saeidzadeh-- is that "in many occasions authorities wrongly give permission for sex-change surgery to homosexuals who request it for the sole purpose of being able to be in a homosexual relationship without fear of conviction."


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Guardianship, gender roles, and male control over women's sexuality are also tools that allow for the enforcement of heterosexual norms.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Some of what is deemed to be masculine in Muslim cultures stems from the life and actions of Muhammad as put down in the hadith. Muhammad was married to his first wife Khadija monogamously for 25 years. Upon her death he later married a total of fourteen women. In Sahih al-Bukhari 7:62:142, it is said that Muhammad sometimes had sexual relations with all his wives in one night, and in 1:5:268 he is described as having “the strength of thirty men.” The idea of traditional masculinity is also strongly shaped by the traditional idea of femininity. Several classic Muslim authors such as Sheikh Muhammad Nefzawi and Ahmed Bin Selman describe women as beings with insatiable sexual appetites. It follows that a man who can satisfy multiple women is seen as incredibly powerful and masculine. In many classical arguments, it is the husband's duty to fulfill his wife's sexual needs, which are part of her rights as a married woman. This argument is often paired with the statement that this is how society prevents social unrest (fitna).


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: In addition to the relationship between Muslim masculinity and female sexuality, some concepts of Muslim masculinity stem from the relationships between Muslim men. Prominent writer of "Islamic Masculinities", Lahoucine Ouzgane, proposes the idea that masculinity is rooted in a fear of emasculation by other men. Additionally, projecting homosexuality onto another man is often seen as a way to emasculate him while reaffirming one's superior virility.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: What is deemed feminine, and the “ideal” Muslim woman, is constantly changing. These changes are influenced by many things, including the global market and modernization. The Quran requires Muslim men and women to dress modestly. The law of the hijab states that the whole female body aside from the face and hands should be covered when a woman leaves her home as a sign of modesty, obedience to God and respect for Islamic values. Modernization has changed many aspects of femininity, in the past, and in the present. The global market is changing femininity by showcasing and promoting images that are desirable for an ideal Muslim woman, and this change has caused certain traditions for women to become outdated and contested. One tradition that is becoming less accepted is the veil; some women, though not all, now see this as degrading in today's world whereas in the past it was seen as a sign of respect. Regardless of traditions, women have been used throughout history as a cultural symbol of Muslim religious values, which has shaped what it means to be feminine in a society.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Viewpoints regarding gender roles vary with different interpretations of the Quran, different sects of the religion, and different cultural traditions and geographical locations.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Salafiyyah literally means "that which pertains to ancestry". It was first conceived by Muhammad Abduh and refers back to the first generation of Muslims who supported Muhammad during the seventh century.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: The ideas of Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz are characteristic of much of the salafiyyah sect. Bin Baz believed that the engagement of women in “male domains” separates them from their God-given nature, eventually leading to women's misery and demise. He believed that women entering “male domains” posed a danger to Muslim society, eventually causing it to fall into moral decay. Additionally, he asserted that a woman outside the home was a woman denying her true, God-given character. He viewed the involvement of women in male domains as a detriment to the next generation, which he says may receive a worse education and less compassion from their mothers. Bin Baz also thought that women should only work in certain fields, those that are within a woman's domain, such as female education, nursing, and medical care. But even these must obey a strict separation of gender.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: The Qur'anic and prophetic terms for "moderation" are reflected in the word "wasatiyyah," which means the "middle way between extremes" and "upright without losing balance."


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Muhammad Al-Ghazali's ideas characterize much of the wasatiyyah school of thought. His ideas are shared by other notable and influential people including Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Abdel-Haleem AbuShaqua, and Hasan al-Turabi. Together they represent a growing modernist trend. Al-Ghazali indicated that Islam suggests a significant sense of equality between men and women. He maintained that there are traditions created by people and not by God that slow women's development and keeps them in religious ignorance, which he believes results in the degradation of the whole Muslim community. Ghazali asserts that women have been denied a say in their communities and have been restricted to domestic service. He also called for a change in Islamic thinking in general and the re-evaluation of cultural traditions that are attributed wrongly as central to the Islamic faith.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: In her writings, Fatema Mernissi remarks that “if women's rights are a problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the Qur'an nor the Prophet Muhammad, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the interests of a male elite”. She questions the social norm that a man is dishonored if a woman in their family works outside of domestic space. She asserts that in the male mind, society is divided into an economically productive section that is public and male and, a domestic sphere that is private and female, and that these two areas should not mix.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Heba Ra'uf (born 1965) stresses the importance of new interpretations of the Quran and Sunnah (traditions and sayings of Muhammad). Ra'uf argues that the advancement of women's causes in Arab and Muslim societies requires a reworking of Islamic thought. She criticizes the efforts of those who draw their inspiration exclusively from Western feminism. On the other hand, some feminists like Nawal El-Saadawi severely criticize the veil: “veiling and nakedness are two sides of the same coin. Both mean women are bodies without mind … ”. But Ra'uf sees wearing a veil as a means of liberation: “the veil neutralizes women's sexuality in the public sphere, making clear that they are citizens – not sexual objects”.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Ra'uf acknowledges that women belong in the public sphere, and she challenges any gender-based separation between the public and private spheres. She has asserted that “breaking the dichotomy would give housewives more social esteem and would encourage working women to fulfill their psychological need to be good mothers and wives,” emphasizing that women's work should extend both into the private and the public sectors.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: As of June 2018, women are allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. They were the only country in the world which banned woman from driving. In some areas, such as Mecca, they are expected to cover their hair as well. While they have gained increased access to education and a few gender-segregated job opportunities, their representation in the labor market has increased from just over 10 percent in 2002 to 33 percent .


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Women's development in Saudi Arabia has been relatively slower than in its neighboring Arab countries, especially regarding the improvement of female participation. In 2004, the fifth Jeddah Economic Forum held in Saudi Arabia had its first ever woman in key activities, with Lubna Olayan delivering the keynote speech.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: The Islamic Republic of Iran has witnessed several advancements and setbacks for women's roles in the past 40 years, especially following the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Initially, laws were enacted that restricted women's freedom of movement such as more strict enforcing of veiling and segregation of sexes in public spaces. Access to education was restricted and certain political positions and occupations were discouraged or barred to women. After the 1989 Iranian constitutional referendum, changes resulted in an improvement in the lives and opportunities of women. Since then, several women have been elected to the Iranian parliament and more women participate in civil service. This is partially due to women taking advantage of higher educational opportunities.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: In the Afghanistan, women's rights have oscillated back and forth depending on the time period. After the fall of Kabul in 2021 during the Taliban insurgency and subsequent takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, concern about the future of women in the country increased. For the past 18 years, there were improvements in girls' education in which 4 out of 10 children were girls, according to a report by UNESCO. Due to the pressure from United Nations and International Organizations, Talibans were forced to allow women for education including under-graduate and post-graduate.


title: Gender roles in Islam

text: Apart from the education rights, the Women's Ministry was also replaced by the Ministry of Vice and Virtue. These groups of Islamic religious police were considered very harsh and even beat women if they were spotted without male guardians or dressed immodestly.


title: Rami Reddy (actor)

text: Gangasani Rami Reddy also known as Spot Nana (28 March 1959 – 14 April 2011) was an Indian actor in Telugu cinema. He also tried as director and producer. He is known for his negative roles, character roles and comedy timing. He was a well-known villain and he had an inimitable style with typical Telangana dialect. He shot to fame with his dialogue "spot pedatha" in the film Ankusam.


title: Rami Reddy (actor)

text: Gangasani Rami Reddy was born in Chittoor district at Valmikipuram (formerly known as Vayalpad). He did his BCJ (journalism) from Osmania University.


title: Rami Reddy (actor)

text: Before entering films, Reddy worked with "Mf Daily" as a journalist. He shot to fame with his role as 'Spot Nana' in the super hit film "Ankusam" and other movies including "Osey Ramulamma", "Ammoru", "Gaayam", "Anaganaga Oka Roju" and "Peddarikam". He acted in more than 250 films as a villain and character actor in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam and Bhojpuri languages.


title: Rami Reddy (actor)

text: Rami Reddy had developed liver and kidney ailments. He died on 14 April 2011 in a private hospital in Secunderabad. He was only 52 when he died.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: Cultural Muslims are religiously non-practicing individuals who still identify with Islam due to family backgrounds, personal experiences, or the social and cultural environment in which they grew up.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: In Central Asia and in former communist countries, the term "cultural Muslim" came into use to describe those who wished their "Muslim" identity to be associated with certain national and ethnic rituals, rather than merely religious faith.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: There is, however, a secondary meaning to "Muslim" which may shade into the first. A Muslim is one born to a Muslim father who takes on his or her parents' confessional identity without necessarily subscribing to the beliefs and practices associated with the faith, just as a Jew may describe him- or herself as "Jewish" without observing the Tanakh or Halacha. In non-Muslim societies, such Muslims may subscribe to, and be vested with, secular identities. The Muslims of Bosnia, descendants of Slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule, are not always noted for attendance at prayer, abstention from alcohol, seclusion of women and other social practices associated with believing Muslims in other parts of the world. They were officially designated as "Muslims by nationality" to distinguish them from Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats under the former Yugoslav communist regime. The label "Muslim" indicates their ethnicity and group allegiance, but not necessarily their religious beliefs. In this limited context (which may apply to other Muslim minorities in Europe and Asia), there may be no contradiction between being Muslim and being atheist or agnostic, just as there are Jewish atheists and Jewish agnostics. This secular definition of Muslim (sometimes the terms "cultural Muslim" or "nominal Muslim" are used) is very far from being uncontested.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: A cultural Muslim internalizes the Islamic cultural tradition, or way of thinking, as a frame of reference. Cultural Muslims are diverse in terms of norms, values, political opinions, and religious views. They retain a shared "discourse or structure of feeling" related to shared history and memories.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: The concept of a "cultural Muslim"someone who identifies as a Muslim yet is not religiousis not always met with acceptance in conservative Islamic communities.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: In non-Muslim majority countries, Muslims may identify themselves by distinguishing themselves as practicing vs. not-practicing and believer vs. non-believer. Usually, ritual practicing ones are presumed to be believers, while non-practicing ones may be believers or non-believers.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: In several countries, self-reported Muslims practice the religion at low levels. According to a 2012 survey by Pew Research Center, about 1% of the Muslims in Azerbaijan, 5% in Albania, 9% in Uzbekistan, 10% in Kazakhstan, 19% in Russia, and 22% in Kosovo said that they attend mosque once a week or more. According to the same study, only 15% of the Muslims in Albania and 18% of the Muslims in Kazakhstan said that religion was very important in their lives, and only 2% of Muslims in Kazakhstan, 4% in Albania, 10% in Kosovo, 14% in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 14% in Kyrgyzstan, 16% in Uzbekistan, and 21% in Azerbaijan reported that they perform all five prayers a day.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: Azerbaijan is a mostly Shia Muslim country, with more than 96% of its population being Muslim. According to a 2009 Gallup Poll, Azerbaijan is one of the most irreligious countries in the Muslim world, with about 54% of respondents indicating the importance of religion in their life as little or none. The same poll indicates that only 21% of the respondents has attended on religious services. Gallup International indicated that only 34% of Azerbaijanis adhere to religious practices, and ranked Azerbaijan the 13th least religious country from data compiled in 2005, 2008 and 2015. It is a secular country by its constitution, and according to James Reynolds of "BBC News" one of the goals of the secular government of Azerbaijan is to "check the spread of political Islam".


title: Cultural Muslims

text: Surveys conducted 1994 and 1996 observed a decrease in religiosity based on lowering mosque participation, less frequent prayer, dropping importance attached to a religious education, etc. This decrease in religiosity was more visible in younger Muslims; however, other more recent studies show that while participation in religious activities among young Muslims is reducing, they are more likely to identify with Islam culturally.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: A 2005 Université Libre de Bruxelles study estimated that about 10% of the Muslim population in Belgium are "practicing Muslims". A 2009 survey found that the majority of Muslims in Belgium supported "separation between religion and state." A 2010 study found that while Muslims put great emphasis on religious freedom and the overwhelming majority stated people should be free to leave Islam if they wanted, they were less comfortable with the idea of Muslims marrying non-Muslims.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: Evgenia Ivanova of the New Bulgarian University stated in 2011 that "religion is not of primary importance to Bulgaria's Muslims." The New Bulgarian University conducted a survey of 850 Muslims in Bulgaria, which found that 48.6% described themselves as religious, 28.5% of which were very religious. Approximately 41% never went to a mosque and 59.3% did not pray at home. About 0.5% believed that disputes should be resolved using Islamic Sharia law and 79.6% said that wearing a veil in school was "unacceptable." More than half of the respondents said cohabitation without marriage was "acceptable", 39.8% ate pork and 43.3% drank alcohol. On the contrary, 88% of respondents said they circumcised their boys and 96% observed Muslim burial practices for their relatives.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, 33% of Bulgarian Muslims responded that religion is "very important" in their lives. The same survey found that 7% of Bulgarian Muslims pray all five salah, 22% attend mosque at least once a week, and 6% read Quran at least once a week.


title: Cultural Muslims

text: According to a survey, only 33% of French Muslims who were interviewed said they were practicing believers. That figure is the same as that obtained by the INED/INSEE survey in October 2010. And 20% claimed to go regularly to the mosque for the Friday service, and 31% practice prayer (salat), and 70% said they "observe Ramadan". According to expert Franck Fregosi: "Although fasting during Ramadan is the most popular practice, it ranks more as a sign of Muslim identity than piety, and it is more a sign of belonging to a culture and a community", and he added that not drinking alcohol "seems to be more a cultural behavior".


title: Cultural Muslims

text: In 2009, only 24% of Muslims in the Netherlands attended mosque once a week according to a survey. According to the same 2004 survey, they found that the importance of Islam in the lives of Dutch Muslims, particularly of second-generation immigrants was decreasing. This observation was based on the reducing participation of younger Muslims in Islamic rituals, organizations, and prayer. The study also predicted that the trend would continue with increasing education and "individualization". However, the study also found that second-generation immigrants attached more importance to religion that the first generation as an "individual experience." The study concluded "the expression of religiosity by Muslim youth was not much different to that of their Dutch Christian or Jewish peers".


title: Cultural Muslims

text: In a poll conducted by Sabancı University in 2006 16% of Turkish Muslims said they were ""extremely religious"", 39% said they were ""somewhat religious"", and 32% said they were ""not religious"".


title: Cultural Muslims

text: Kia Abdullah says that the term, and cultural Muslims' identity, are at the receiving end of criticism not only from conservative Muslims but also from some progressives, saying that cultural Muslim cherry-pick the best of both worlds without enough proactive contribution and commitment to liberalism.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: Wahbi Khazri (; born 8 February 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or as a forward for club Montpellier.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: Trained at Bastia from 2004, Khazri made his professional debut there in 2009 and quickly became a vital part of the team, as he helped the club reach promotion to Ligue 2 in 2011, and then Ligue 1 in 2012. He left in 2014 to join fellow French side Bordeaux. In 2016, Khazri joined Sunderland in the Premier League; he was subsequently loaned to Rennes during the 2017–18 campaign. After finishing the season with 11 goals in 29 games, Khazri attracted the attention of Saint-Étienne, who recruited him in July 2018. In 2022, Khazri signed for Montpellier.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: Born in France, Khazri represented Tunisia at international level. He was the former captain of the national team, playing 74 matches and scoring 25 goals for the side between 2013 and 2022. He represented Tunisia at five Africa Cup of Nations tournaments and at both the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: A native of Ajaccio, Khazri started his career with local side Jeunesse Sportive Ajaccio before moving to Bastia. He received his first call up to the senior squad for their match against Amiens on 20 February 2009. He made his debut in that match coming on as a substitute in the 85th minute for Ludovic Genest. Bastia scored the winning goal a minute later to win the match 1–0.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: He scored his first career goal on 13 March 2009, in a 1–0 victory over Montpellier. Wahbi quickly established himself as a goalscorer, scoring again a couple of weeks later in a 3–1 win over Vannes. He scored again, this time on the final match day of the season against Troyes, scoring the first goal in a 2–1 victory. The loss meant Troyes would be relegated to the Championnat National.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: On 1 July 2014, he signed up for four years with the Bordeaux. He played his first match in his new colors on 9 August 2014, on the first day of the 2014–15 season against Montpellier. Bordeaux won by a goal to zero that day. He scored his first goal in his second appearance for Bordeaux, the next day as the Girondins host Monaco on 17 August. He scored his goal on a penalty that he himself caused and thus participated in the victory of his family 4–1.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: On 28 September 2014, he scored the 3,400th goal in Girondins history. His first season at the Girondins was a success: he managed to win in the team as a starter and totaled nine goals in 32 league games.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: He scored his first goal of the 2015–16 season, in his first match against Reims on 9 August 2015 (defeated by a score of 2–1). On 11 September, he scored a goal in a high-tension match for championship leaders Paris Saint-Germain (PSG); he managed to take the ball from the feet of Kevin Trapp, the opposing goalkeeper, even if the match ended in a 2–2 draw.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: On 30 January 2016, Khazri joined Sunderland on a four and a half-year contract for an undisclosed fee. Khazri scored his first goal for Sunderland against Manchester United on 13 February 2016, opening the scoring with a direct free kick that beat David de Gea at his far post. Khazri later set up Lamine Koné's 82nd-minute goal from a corner, as Sunderland won 2–1.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: On 7 May 2016, Khazri scored a volley in a 3–2 win over Chelsea as manager Sam Allardyce's team neared survival in the Premier League. Richard Mennear of the "Sunderland Echo" wrote that "His work rate was immense, pressing and probing the Chelsea defence and causing problems from set pieces. He has regained his form just at the right time".


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: On 31 August 2017, Khazri returned to Ligue 1, signing a season-long loan at Rennes. He was sent off on 14 October in a 2–0 "Derby Breton" loss at Guingamp, earning two yellow cards for dissent within ten seconds. His nine goals helped the club to 5th place and qualification to the Europa League.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: On 17 July 2018, Khazri transferred to Saint-Étienne for four years and chose to wear number 10. He played his first match with the “Greens” on the first day of Ligue 1, 11 August against Guingamp at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, and it was on that day that he also scored his first goal in his new colors. He opened the scoring by performing a volley after a cross from the left of Loïs Diony. ASSE wins 2–1 in this game. On 28 September, on behalf of the eighth day of Ligue 1, he achieved a performance at home against Monaco, scoring the only two goals of the match, thus achieving his first double with Saint-Étienne. On 12 January 2019, while ASSE traveled to the Stade de Roudourou to once again face Guingamp, Wahbi Khazri scored the only goal of the match on a direct free kick at ground level, deceiving the opposing goalkeeper Marc-Aurèle Caillard. This achievement allows him to bring his total of goals to ten units, a score he had never achieved before in a single season in the league. His second half of the season was less brilliant but he still ended the 2018–19 season with thirteen goals scored, making him the top scorer for his team in this exercise.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: Khazri had a difficult start to the 2019–20 season. If he is decisive passer for Romain Hamouma during the victory in Dijon 1–2, it is not until the eleventh day, 27 October against Amiens, to see him score his first goal of the season, not sufficient however to obtain the victory 2–2. Khazri, who then gets injured with his selection in November, is out for several weeks. Due to the state of the club's finances, he was placed on the unwanted list by Claude Puel during the 2020–21 season. However, despite contacts at Turkish runner-up Trabzonspor, the club failed to sell him. He is therefore reinstated in the group with a first match against Lens, where he takes a red card after a late tackle. He scored his first goal of the season from the penalty spot against Lille 1–1 on 29 November. His playing time is reduced compared to previous seasons, but through perseverance he manages to regain his starting position and even scores the first hat-trick of his career in the victory 4–1 against Bordeaux on 11 April 2021. This match also allows him to reach the symbolic bar of 200 matches in Ligue 1.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: During the 2021–22 season, on 30 October, during a trip to face Metz, he scored his seventh goal of the season in Ligue 1 with a shot from 68 meters, the furthest goal in Ligue 1 since 2006, the first year in which the distances of shots were measured. After the eviction of Claude Puel as manager, interim coach Julien Sablé entrusted the captain's armband to Khazri. He continued his role as captain under new coach Pascal Dupraz.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: On 27 June 2022, Khazri signed for Ligue 1 side Montpellier. He chose the number 99 jersey at the club, becoming the first player to wear the number for Montpellier. On 13 August 2022, he scored his first goal for the club in 5–2 away loss to Paris Saint-Germain.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: In 2009, Khazri made his debut for the Tunisia national under-20 football team. However, in November 2011, he was called up by Erick Mombaerts to the France national under-21 football team for a pair of 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualifiers against Romania and Slovakia. In February 2012, he played his first and only game for the French side, against Italy, before being substituted by Frédéric Bulot.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: In late 2012, Khazri switched his international allegiance once again, when he accepted a call-up from Sami Trabelsi, the Tunisian national team's coach, including him in the squad for the 2013 African Cup of Nations. Henryk Kasperczak named Khazri among 23 Tunisians to compete at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon. In the final group game, a 4–2 win over Zimbabwe at the Stade d'Angondjé, he assisted Naïm Sliti and scored a penalty in a 4–2 win that put the Carthage Eagles through at the expense of a favoured Algeria side.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: Manager Nabil Maâloul called up Khazri for Tunisia's squad at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. In the second group match, he assisted Dylan Bronn and scored himself in added time in a 5–2 loss to Belgium in Moscow. With both teams already eliminated, he then played his part in a 2–1 comeback win over Panama that was Tunisia's first at the World Cup since 1978; he set up Fakhreddine Ben Youssef and then scored the winning goal, the 2,500th in the competition's history.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: Khazri was the captain of the Tunisian side that came fourth at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt. In their second group game, he equalised to earn a 1–1 draw with Mali in Port Suez.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: In the third match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification against Mauritania, on 7 October 2021, he scored his 22nd goal in the colors of Tunisia, thus becoming the second top scorer in the selection behind Issam Jemâa (36 goals). On the second day of the group stage of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, Khazri scored his first double of the competition against Mauritania, in a match where the Eagles of Carthage won 4–0.


title: Wahbi Khazri

text: In November 2022, Khazri was called up to the Tunisia squad by Jalel Kadri for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. On 30 November, he scored the winning goal in a 1–0 victory over France in the last match of group stage, yet Tunisia were eliminated as they finished third in their group. He announced his international retirement on the following day of the last World Cup match.


title: Liver fluke

text: Liver fluke is a collective name of a polyphyletic group of parasitic trematodes under the phylum Platyhelminthes.


title: Liver fluke

text: They are principally parasites of the liver of various mammals, including humans. Capable of moving along the blood circulation, they can occur also in bile ducts, gallbladder, and liver parenchyma. In these organs, they produce pathological lesions leading to parasitic diseases. They have complex life cycles requiring two or three different hosts, with free-living larval stages in water.


title: Liver fluke

text: The body of liver flukes is leaf-like and flattened. The body is covered with a tegument. They are hermaphrodites having complete sets of both male and female reproductive systems. They have simple digestive systems and primarily feed on blood. The anterior end is the oral sucker opening into the mouth. Inside, the mouth leads to a small pharynx which is followed by an extended intestine that runs through the entire length of the body. The intestine is heavily branched and the anus is absent. Instead, the intestine runs along an excretory canal that opens at the posterior end. Adult flukes produce eggs that are passed out through the excretory pore. The eggs infect different species of snails (as intermediate hosts) in which they grow into larvae. The larvae are released into the environment from where the definitive hosts (humans and other mammals) get the infection. In some species, another intermediate host is required, generally a cyprinid fish. In this case, the definitive hosts are infected from eating infected fish. Hence, they are food-borne parasites.


title: Liver fluke

text: Liver fluke infections cause serious medical and veterinary diseases. Fasciolosis of sheep, goats and cattle, is the major cause of economic losses in dairy and meat industry. Fasciolosis of humans produces clinical symptoms such as fever, nausea, swollen liver, extreme abdominal pain, jaundice and anemia.


title: Liver fluke

text: Clonorchiasis and opisthorchiasis (due to "Opisthorchis viverrini") are particularly dangerous. They can survive for several decades in humans causing chronic inflammation of the bile ducts, epithelial hyperplasia, periductal fibrosis and bile duct dilatation. In many infections these symptoms cause further complications such as stone formation, recurrent pyogenic cholangitis and cancer (cholangiocarcinoma). Opisthorchiasis is the leading cause of cholangiocarcinoma in Thailand and Laos. "Clonorchis sinensis" and "Opisthorchis viverrini" are both categorized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as Group 1 carcinogens.


title: Victoria II

text: Victoria II is a grand strategy game developed by the Swedish game company Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It was announced on August 19, 2009, and released on August 13, 2010. It is a sequel to "".


title: Victoria II

text: Virtual Programming published the Mac OS X version of the game on September 17, 2010, which is available on the App Store. The game was localized for Russia by 1C Company and Snowball Studios.


title: Victoria II

text: Like its , "Victoria II" has the player control one of approximately 200 states of the world between 1836 and 1936. The player is in charge of a number of tools for managing the economy, science, domestic politics, diplomacy, army and navy. The main difference from other global strategies of Paradox Interactive is a significant emphasis on the details of internal processes occurring in the state, and the developed system of diplomacy available to the great powers. The game has many historical aspects to it, such as the ability to colonize places that, at the time, were not under the control of any European power, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, North and Western Canada, and parts of Asia. Additionally, the game possesses a multiplayer mode, in which up to 32 players can play simultaneously.


title: Victoria II

text: A sequel for "" was announced on August 19, 2009 as part of GamesCon 2009. Johan Andersson, the lead programmer for Paradox Interactive at the time, talked about the changes in gameplay compared to the previous game and showed the first screenshots of the game, which showed a map of Europe and various interface elements.


title: Victoria II

text: Shortly after the announcement of the game, the head of Paradox Interactive Studios, Fredrik Wester, publicly stated that, due to the low sales of the first game, he did not believe in the success of Victoria 2, he voted for another project to be put in development, and that he was ready to shave his head should the game see a profit. On the contrary, Johan Andersson, the initiator of the project, was confident that the game would be successful, referring to the requests and votes by fans and the opinion of the development team. In the end, Andersson and Wester made a bet that, if Victoria 2 was successful, Wester would shave is head, and if it was not, he would have sole control over which game would release next. It was revealed in a German interview with Fredrik that 70,000 copies would need to be sold for Victoria II to be profitable. On June 17, 2010, when it became known that there would be many pre-orders giving the game good sales, Wester asked Jessica Chobot at IGN to shave his head and upload the pictures to Twitter.


title: Victoria II

text: The game was developed by a development team consisting of producer, designer and programmer Johan Andersson, project leader and programmer Thomas Johansson, designer and tester Christopher King, programmers Dan Lind, Fredrik Zetterman, Olof Björk, Henrik Vohraeus, Bjorn Johannessen, Sara Wendel-Ertqvist, artists Yunus Jakobsson, Fredrik Persson and composer Andreas Waldetoft. The development team covered the progress of development in their diaries, which were published to Paradox's official forum by Christopher King. Between November 2009 and June 2010, 29 numbered diaries and two bonus diaries were published.


title: Victoria II

text: A working beta version of Victoria II was demonstrated in June 2010 at the E3 show held in Los Angeles. The game was presented by the producer, Johan Andersson, who demonstrated the main gameplay and talked about innovations the game would bring. On August 10, 2010, a playable demo was released, allowing you to play as the United States.


title: Victoria II

text: "Victoria II" spans the globe from 1836 to 1936 with over 200 playable nations. Like its predecessor, "Victoria II" focuses on internal management, covering the industrialization and social/political changes in a country with 8 different government types. The game gives a lot of importance to the economy of a country by having a complex market system with over 50 types of goods and factories. While warfare is a component of the game it is not the primary focus as in other Paradox Interactive games such as the "Hearts of Iron" series.


title: Victoria II

text: Nations' populations are divided into cultures, religions, classes and occupations. There are several different population groups (or "pops"), such as aristocrats, army officers, clergy, soldiers, labourers, slaves, bureaucrats and others. As in other Paradox titles such as "Europa Universalis", historical missions called "decisions", which are micro-objectives in the larger game, have been added. There are thousands of historical events and decisions as well. These events and decisions can lead to the creation or disintegration of nation states.


title: Victoria II

text: "Victoria II" contains a number of changes and improvements from its predecessor. The interface was streamlined when compared to the original game, which was described by producer Johan Andersson as, "the interface God forgot". Automation of various tasks has been added, including trade and population promotion. The education system has received an overhaul by having clergy educate people of the same religion, and each population group now has their own literacy levels. Education and literacy's importance is reflected in the vast technology system that contains thousands of inventions. Additionally, the functioning of ideology in the game was tweaked such that population groups are more sensitive to changes in their country's situation, as well as inclined to agitate for specific levels of political and social reforms.


title: Victoria II

text: The economic system in "Victoria II" attempts to simulate the flow of resources in a world market. Every province in the game produces a resource in resource gathering operations (RGOs). Some resources, such as wheat, are demanded principally by the population. Other materials, like iron, are consumed primarily by industry, but are still tradeable.


title: Victoria II

text: The production and unemployment system from the original "Victoria" has been revised to better reflect market forces, whereas in the original, the state provided the funds for resources and the player possessed a wide range of options with which to build their economy, provided they had access to the proper raw materials. All resources can be collected or produced by industry. The game also has a cottage production system simulating pre-industrial economies.


title: Victoria II

text: "Victoria II" contains a deep political simulation reflected in 8 different types of governments, 7 ideologies and a new sphere of influence system, gunboat diplomacy, and a new election system with coalition governments and legislatures.


title: Victoria II

text: The diplomacy in "Victoria II" is similar to that of other Paradox titles. Each country has a relation value of −200 to +200 which represents how much they like each other. Diplomatic and in-game actions shift this relationship around and it factors into the AI's decisions. However, Paradox Interactive has expanded parts of this system. War goals from Heir to the Throne, an expansion for Europa Universalis III have been integrated though they function in a slightly different way. More war goals can be added as the war progresses, although this depends on the population's temperament. Failure to achieve a war goal will increase the population's militancy, which can lead to revolts as well as a loss of prestige.


title: Victoria II

text: In the game controlling a Great Power, one of the eight countries with highest total score, gives special diplomatic options not available to other countries. Great Powers do not just influence how a country sees them; they have the added ability to use their influence on other countries to change their perception of other Great Powers. The struggle for influence that the Great Powers wage around the world is not a simple bilateral basis but occurs with each other inside different countries, giving an added dimension to diplomacy which was not present in the original Victoria.


title: Victoria II

text: Warfare is regarded as a lesser priority than politics and economics in "Victoria II", though it follows the basic pattern used in other Paradox grand strategy games, with armies moving between provinces and engaging enemy armies and capturing enemy territory. The basic combat system is a combination of the systems used in "Europa Universalis III", "", and "Hearts of Iron III". A key component to combat is "frontage": the number of units in an army at the front line, which decreases as technology improves to simulate the change from the roving armies of the Napoleonic Era to the continuous trench lines of World War I.


title: Victoria II

text: Several aspects of the military have been changed from "Victoria". The base unit has been reduced from a 10,000-unit division to a 3,000-unit brigade, which is no longer raised from a national manpower pool but directly raised from a provincial soldier POP, to which the brigade remains connected. A new aspect to the military is reconnaissance. This is a value that gives a bonus (or penalty, if low) to capturing provinces and defeating enemy armies; in prolonged combat, however, the reconnaissance value drops. Units such as cavalry and aeroplanes have high reconnaissance values and are intended to be used as scouts. The overall objective is to move your country on into a new era, in a period of great change.


title: Victoria II

text: "A House Divided" was announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 as an expansion pack with an aim on "[improving the] political and economical aspects of the game, with focus on the American Civil War era". It was released on February 2, 2012, for Windows and on March 30, 2012, for OS X; it is currently only available for purchase by download. It includes the following features:


title: Victoria II

text: The "Victoria II: Heart of Darkness" expansion was released on April 16, 2013. It includes the following features:


title: Victoria II

text: A selection of smaller DLC has been made available for purchase for "Victoria II". These have little to no effect on gameplay but alter the game's appearance or music, and are significantly less expensive than their larger counterparts.