Munich, Germany - Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? A challenging new book by the Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker says that the answer is "yes".

In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker presents data showing that human violence, while still very much with us today, has been gradually declining. Moreover, he says, "over the long sweep of history, women have been and will be a pacifying force. Traditional war is a man's game: tribal women never band together to raid neighbouring villages." As mothers, women have evolutionary incentives to maintain peaceful conditions in which to nurture their offspring and ensure that their genes survive into the next generation.

Skeptics immediately reply that women have not made war simply because they have rarely been in power. If they were empowered as leaders, the conditions of an anarchic world would force them to make the same bellicose decisions that men do. Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi were powerful women; all of them led their countries to war.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/201221075020654159.html

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazons

Supporters of women's rights sound off using the hashtag #Women2Dunkin.

In Riyadh, a sign posted in a Dunkin' Donuts store stating that women could not enter without a male chaperone offended many online and spurred the hashtag #Women2Dunkin.

The hashtag is a spin-off of the online campaign #Women2Drive that began in 2011. 

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It sounds silly and many comment on the hashtag are funny including this one:

If women shouldn't buy bananas, carrots and cucumbers because of sexual connotations, surely it is MEN who should be banned from buying donuts?

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But is it a promotional ploy to create a buzz around something that could be full of sugar and transfats?... Make something temptingly illegal and the cash comes in.

But then another comments:

dunkin donuts make horrible donuts so i'd recommend going to krispy kreme.

Same stuff, different brand... But the map is telling:

Saudi King Abdullah has sacked one of his most hardline advisers, Sheikh Abdelmohsen al-Obeikan.

Sheikh Obeikan, who was an adviser to the royal cabinet, opposed moves to relax gender segregation.

The dismissal comes shortly after Sheikh Obeikan attacked plans by "influential people to corrupt Muslim society by trying to change the natural status of women".

Saudi officials did not give a reason for Sheikh Obeikan's departure.

His recent comments were taken to be an attack on tentative steps towards relaxing some stricter interpretations of Saudi law.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18042467

Meanwhile, more and more educated older Afghans reminisce foundly over the communist era of their country... Al least "every one was equal", including women... Pity about the Yanks who financed the Taliban and Mujahideens to oust the commies...

The United States military has called for a review of all its training classes after receiving criticism for a course taught to senior officers that allegedly encouraged war against Islam.

The controversial class presented slides that accused dozens of Islamic groups, many widely recognised as mainstream advocacy groups, of infiltrating the US media, education system, government and military.

One slide titled "The Muslim Brotherhood and Violence" showed a photo of an al-Qaeda beheading, erroneously conflating the two groups.

Through the slides and other presentations, the course created a picture of a US government co-opted by subversive Muslim elements.

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2012/05/20125124178148367.html

Turkey may be a secular country, but the government is turning several secular schools into religious institutions under controversial education reforms. And the schools are being received with mixed results.

Many parents in Turkey were in for a shock this month when they discovered that their children's schools had been turned into Imam Hatips. Religious schools were originally created to teach future imams or religious leaders.

But not everyone was unhappy at the change: at one school, a mother, wearing a headscarf, believes it's a good thing.

"I want my child to learn about his religion […] because we are a Muslim country so religion must be part of our education," she said.

Another parent was less enthusiastic about the change.  

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16269525,00.html

See toon at top...

Schools and health centres built by the British in Afghanistan as part of the military's counter-insurgency strategy are being forced to close down because President Karzai's government cannot afford to pay for them, the Guardian has learned.

Britain has spent hundreds of millions of pounds in the province over the last six years building and restoring services decimated by conflict and the years of Taliban rule.

But the Guardian has been told that a confidential report compiled this year warned that some of the buildings in Helmand were constructed without enough consultation with the Afghan government and without thinking through how they would be maintained.

Senior British officials in Helmand are working with Afghan ministers to identify the schools and clinics that are deemed "critical" and should remain open, while most of the rest could be phased out between now and the end of 2014.

The report made clear the British "had built too much" in the province, and that this was a consequence of the UK military trying to win "hearts and minds" among the populace.

It is not clear how many schools and clinics will be affected, but it is thought dozens are potentially at risk, particularly in more rural areas.

"Of course we built too much," said one official. "We didn't think about how the Afghans would pay for it. But it was understandable. Nobody is blaming the military. We wanted to show them what we could do for them, but without regard for sustainability."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/27/afghan-schools-clinics-built-british-close/print