Choscura: I don't know of any muslim that even mentioned female circumcision to me. Where do you hear these things from? Searching around I found that it was a pre-islamic practice and the act wasn't outright banned at the beginning. The authenticity of the hadith you talking about is disputed and has only been reported by one. (And I personally have doubts that, if this hadith is true, then it would be during the initial years of Islam). Later however Islam prohibited all acts that harms oneself which makes this act prohibited. Unfortunately, some muslim communities do practice this...but as I said earlier for many other things, the issue is more regional/cultural than religious (and they use religion to justify it ).

jon.kiparsky, on 26 November 2012 - 01:52 AM, said:

Possibly...my theory was that islamic(or any modest) clothing (which are considered "oppressive" by some) could help her possibly escape situations like these.....we'll its my theory on how modest clothing could help.
A clarification (since my question was interpreted out of its intention): Regardless of the situation, all blame will be on the criminal and not on the victim.

strawhat89: My bad, the second para wasn't directed at you (I should have separated the two paragraphs). (To your post #7 "Ours is a culture where widows (though that has lessened a lot) and women in general are treated like dirt. Even now in villages and this is the major part of India, women dont get to study beyond the 7th grade..."). I was pointing out regional differences. You sound like you are generalizing/extrapolating facts.

Here are some things to note:
* Saudi doesn't always represent Islam. Arab countries !== Islam, however most of them follow some parts of Islam. My point is that there are other Arab countries and I don't see them forcing things on women.
* "Let there be no compulsion in religion." (Quran 2:256). Then why do Saudi force things on women? I don't know.
* On B9's quote on milk kinship: That's totally retarded. Breast feeding is and has always been only for babies. However it is true that in Islam, two children breast fed by a woman are not allowed to marry each other.
* strawhat89: My place in South India (which is mostly a muslim population) now there are more female muslim medical students than their male counterpart. However there are lot of men who expect their spouse to be a full-time housewife and take care of their kids (but that too is changing now).
For those of you who see muslims depriving women of their rights, I'd ask you to first look around...many problem are regional/cultural. There are some who say they are doing things "in the name of the religion", but in truth they are doing things that aren't part of the religion.

My thoughts:
* I don't know whether I should trust the sources of that article.
* On B9's comment on Burqa being a symbol of oppression: Islam just says women to cover all parts of their body (except their hands) and hair (and optionally to cover the face...however this is more of a cultural thing, as 98% of muslim women don't cover their face). If you have noted, this is how many christian nuns dress too. It doesn't have to be a black burqa. It could be achieved with a top and a long skirt (google them..it looks really neat).
Another thing to note: Men are also expected to cover themselves from shoulder to ankle (so are men being oppressed now?).

I have question for you (and everyone): Lets say two identical-looking beautiful twin sisters walking down the streets, with one of them wearing islamic clothing and the other wearing revealing clothes. Lets say a hooligan at the corner, waiting to pick on a girl, sees the twin sisters. Which of the two girls do you think he will choose to pick on and why?

Hint: It is easier to solve this problem with recursion rather than having a 'backtrack' mode. Problem is that you must 'think in recursion' (Yes, it can give you a headache).

Bonus points (+ Free cake): Also find the shortest path

From my vague assembly language memory, I believe 'return' has something to do with a register (named 'EAX'). That means if you don't return the integer, then whatever was in the register (which is garbage) gets returned?