"The stories of a headscarf"

"THE STORIES OF A HEADSCARF" 

by Zainab Salbi, posted 1/29/15

"Muslim women are needed as critical agents of change in this historical transformative moment in Islamic history and the Middle East. Yet it’s tough to be a Muslim woman these days. We’ve become symbols, not individuals. And that’s in no small part thanks to the global fixation on the headscarf."

http://ideas.ted.com/the-stories-of-a-headscarf/

Grocery Shelves barren in Venezuela

Oil Cash Waning, Venezuelan Shelves Lie Bare 

By WILLIAM NEUMANJAN. 29, 2015

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As Venezuelan Oil Prices Fall, Social Programs Suffer

As Venezuelan Oil Prices Fall, Social Programs Suffer

CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times 

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"She hated being herded “like cattle,” she said, standing for hours in a line of more than 1,500 people hoping to buy food, as soldiers with side arms checked identification cards to make sure no one tried to buy basic items more than once or twice a week.

But Ms. Noriega, a laboratory assistant with three children, said she had no choice, ticking off the inventory in her depleted refrigerator: coffee and corn flour. Things had gotten so bad, she said, that she had begun bartering with neighbors to put food on the table."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/world/americas/strict-rationing-in-venezuela-as-plunging-oil-prices-hurt-economy.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=