Funny Pakistani Wedding

For France, burqa is a jail & an export

Paris: Fashion week in Paris, and after a display of pink and purple mini-dresses in an elegant apartment near the presidential palace, an assistant wheels out a rack bearing two very different creations: black abayas.
The billowing gowns, usually worn with a veil, have been made for the Saudi market by Paris-based couturier Adam Jones. As France considers banning full facial veils such as the niqab and the burqa, which President Nicolas Sarkozy has said “is not welcome here”, the fact that it is a major exporter of couture abayas may seem odd.
But that is just one of the many contradictions exposed by the latest clash between secularism and religion in the home of Europe’s largest Muslim community. “If someone tells me, ‘design an abaya,’ why not, I’m proud of that. It’s just a garment,” designer Stephane Rolland, who has made many abayas for Middle Eastern clients, said backstage after his fashion show in Paris.
When asked about the broader debate whether veils are a sign of subservience and should be outlawed, his confidence wavered. “I don’t want to speak about religion, that’s a different subject. But I don’t want to cover the woman—alas, I don’t want to think about that,” he said before turning away.
While French designers are wooing Saudi clients in airy showrooms, across town in the workingclass neighbourhood of Belleville the picture is very different. “If you wear the veil, you get insulted and attacked all the time, you get called a terrorist,” said Ikram Es-Salhi, 20-year-old student.
Es-Salhi wears a long brown veil that covers her head and body but leaves her face open. She would like to wear the full niqab, but it is banned at her college. She already switched from her preferred course of study, nursing, to sociology as nurses are not allowed to wear veils.
Many feminists not only in the West see the veil as an expression of a spreading ideology that wants to hide and silence women, undoing years of struggle for women’s rights.
However, mayors from various French cities have said more veiled women are turning up at wedding ceremonies or at schools to pick up their children, refusing to bare their faces even for identification.
Meanwhile, the powder blue Afghan burqa, a tent-like garment that covers women from top to toe, is in fact rare in Paris, and even the niqab is not often seen. At Zeina Pret-A-Porter, the shopkeeper says very few customers buy it.
From the outside, the full niqab presents an impenetrable black front. From the inside, the gauze allows a limited view of the world.
But even those who find the garment odious do not necessarily believe a ban on them is the best way to get rid of it. REUTERS

HIDDEN FACTS: As France mulls banning the niqab and the burqa, the fact that it is one of the biggest exporters of couture abayas may seem odd

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Afghan women attacked at protest against sex law

A group of some 1,000 Afghans swarmed a demonstration of 300 women protesting against a new conservative marriage law on Wednesday. The women were pelted with small stones as police struggled to keep the two groups apart.
The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse—a clause that critics say legalizes marital rape. It also regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.
Women activists scheduled a protest on Wednesday attended by mostly young women. But the group was swamped by counter-protesters—both men and women—who shouted down the women’s chants.
Some threw gravel and stones at the women, while others shouted “Death to the slaves of the Christians!” Female police held hands around the group to create a protective barrier.
The government said the Shia Muslim family law is being reviewed by the Justice Department and will not be implemented in its current form. Governments and rights groups across the world have condemned the legislation with President Obama calling it “abhorrent.”
Though the law would apply only to the country’s Shia Muslims— 10-20% of Afghanistan’s 30 million people — it has sparked an uproar by activists who say it marks a return to Taliban-style oppression. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, required women to wear all-covering burqas and banned them from leaving home without a male relative.
Shia Muslim backers of the law say that foreigners are meddling in private Afghan affairs, and Wednesday’s demonstrations brought some of the emotions surrounding the debate over the law to the surface. AP

FIGHTING FOR RIGHTS: Women’s rights activists protest against a new law that legalizes marital rape in Kabul on Wednesday

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Paperwings Pakistan qualifier Lahore

jinnah park a dating point

Khudaya Ve…

“Khudaya Ve, ishq hai kaisaa yeh ajeeb. Dil kay kareeb laaya dil ka naseeb vay”.

I was listening to this song and realized that I have never heard a song as mesmerizing as this one. It takes you to a different world all together. You might be sitting somewhere but within moments you feel yourself all around the world. That is the power of love. Love is such a strong emotion that sometimes I wonder why did not god save this wonder for the hereafter in heaven. Love should have been a reward for heaven for nothing can be as beautiful as it is. Can you recall all those moments when love sprout in your heart and nested its joy in your heart. It’s just a simple feeling yet it has the capacity to empower you and make you feel on the seventh sky. There could have been no better explanation for heaven but ‘love’. They say ‘it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all’. I support it entirely. It is the most magical and contenting feeling ever and has the magic of changing every single thing around you. The biggest blessing god put down onto this earth is ‘love’. Being in love and feeling in love was the most beautiful thing I ever experienced and no matter how much it hurt I would have done it all over again if history were to rewrite itself cause nothing can replace that single moment of sitting down with yourself and smiling for no apparent reason.

I always wanted to collect as many moments of joy I could in life and grab on to those little memories that I could cherish for the rest of my life but I also realized in time that sometimes these memories can become very painful. Love is a very strong emotion. It is so beautiful and such an empowering emotion. For people today love is nothing but a game. It is nothing but a word said out to anybody without realizing what they hold in their hearts. To me love is having that one person in your life who walks by your side through thick and thin and makes every moment of your life beautiful. Someone who you build a home with, someone who loves the people you love because he/she cares about you. Someone who holds those things close to his heart that are important to you for nothing in the world matters more to him but your happiness. Love is wanting to gaze in the eyes of this one person and for a fraction of a second experience heaven. Love is wanting to spend your life with him/her and growing old together. Love is snuggling up in bed holding each others hand watching TV each night. Love is sitting beside each other maybe not uttering a word and feeling that it was the best conversation you ever had. Love makes us strong and love makes us weak yet it is the most beautiful feeling you can ever experience on this earth. Knowing there is one person in this world who lives each day trying to make a home with you and painting beautiful memories on the walls of your home is love. Love does not happen in a moment but it takes a lifetime to build. Love is growing old with that one person you shared your life with. Love is watching your children grow up as you hold each other's hand in all your tuff times. Love is not in remaining at peace with each other all the time but it is in making peace after all the difficulties your relationship goes through. Love is not in these momentarily affairs people live in today. They defame love. Love is a commitment and is a promise of standing by the person you trust and respect the most. Love teaches you to be good and makes you humble. There is nothing more important in this world but our loved one's. Our parents, our siblings and the one we love make the true essence of our lives. Hence, its important to cherish them and realize they might not be there forever because the only thing we lie helpless in front of is death. Love someone only if you feel you will stand by it for the rest of your life. Love someone only if you really feel you will be able to keep them happy . Love someone only when you truly feel you want to build a home with them. Love someone only when you know that person holds as much love in her heart that she will fill your home with joys. Love someone who you want to spend your life with and not just make memories with. Love is a commitment and hence only fall in love when you know you have the power and faith to stick by it for the rest of your life.

Blessed are those who find true love in this life and are able to acquire it. Others like us survive on memories of ‘unrequited love’ and can only feel glimpses of heaven in those memories. I can truly feel the depth of the emotion when I say “Khudaya Ve, Ishq hai kaisaa yeh ajeeb”

JOURNEY BACK TO SWAT BEGINS

PESHAWAR, July 13: People displaced by fighting in Swat began returning to their homes on Monday under a government repatriation programme.

About 195 families left the Jalozai camp by buses escorted by police. NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti went to Charsadda where he saw off 26 displaced families.

The Emergency Response Unit (REU) had made arrangements for over 2,000 families to leave the camp on Monday, but a large number of them did not leave. They cited security concerns and complained about non-payment of Rs25,000 grant promised by the government for each family. About 10,000 displaced families from Swat have been living in the Jalozai camp for about two months.

ERU spokesman Adnan Khan said that the government would not force anyone to leave camps.

The conflict in Swat, Lower Dir and Buner districts forced more than two million people to flee their homes and move to relief camps.

The government has announced that the IDPs would be going back in phases. “It is definitely a joyful day for us. But we are worried about reports of continued presence and movement of the Taliban in our area,” said Hassan Khan of Barikot.

Several other people also said that security continued to be their main concern and it was difficult to believe that militancy had been eliminated from their areas.

Omar Zareen, who belongs to Tahna, said the number of returning IDPs would have been much higher had their representatives and influential people of their areas accompanied them. “The ab sence of elders gives an impression that the situation is still not under control,” he said.

Razia Bibi said: “My family waited for this day when we would be able to leave this dusty camp. I need nothing, I just want to go back to Swat.” Each returning family was given a food package – 80kgs of flour, 8kgs of pulses, 5 litres of cooking oil, 1kg of salt, 1kg of high-energy biscuits, 4kgs of sugar and 300 grams of tea – by the World Food Programme.

Agencies add: “Everybody is so happy. They are crying tears of joy,” Sakhawat Shah, a 25-year-old English student, told a reporter by telephone after reaching Landakai.

“My room was destroyed in the shelling. My computer and books were also damaged but I’m not worried because if I’m alive I can buy more books.” The government says it has worked hard to restore electricity and running water in main towns since the fighting but analysts warn that much needs to be done to sustain the returnees.

“They will start living a normal life if the environment is secure and their fundamental needs are addressed. Secure environment means army, police and civil administration,” said independent analyst Imtiaz Gul.

Shamsher Ali, a 55-year-old shopkeeper, said he was worried because previous military operations had failed to crush the Taliban.

“The army promised us twice before that they cleared the area but then Taliban came again and again to Swat. Perhaps this time the Taliban will come again to Swat,” he said.

“Thank God we’re going back,” said farmer Qaiser Khan.

Pak dancers terrified to return to Swat

Peshawar: Clad in a low-cut dress and heavily made-up, 16-year-old dancing girl Shabnam used to spend her nights twirling gracefully for locals and tourists in Pakistan’s Swat valley.
Famous for its beautiful, paleskinned women, bejewelled dancers of Swat would beguile at house parties, stag nights and hotels, and Shabnam was just 12 when she followed her mother and sisters into the sometimes steamy profession.
But then Taliban fighters infiltrated the valley and her hometown Mingora. Terror forced Shabnam to flee and although some displaced civilians are returning to areas around Swat, she says she is too scared to go home.
“I don’t think the situation will return to normality. The Taliban have terrified not only us dancing girls but the entire population in Swat. I think the Taliban can return any time,” she said.
Pakistan’s northwest has seen creeping religious conservatism over the years and in July 2007 Taliban extremists launched a bloody insurgency to impose a harsh brand of Islamic law across Swat. “About two years ago, the Taliban sent a letter threatening us to stop dancing and singing,” Shabnam said.
Such entertainment forms were branded un-Islamic and retribution was harsh, particularly as they are frequently associated with prostitution. “If I dance at aparty for whole night, then do you think they will let me go without sex?” said Shabnam. She left Swat after her cousin was killed.
Fearing she was next, Shabnam fled to the northwest metropolis Peshawar, and says dozens of other Swat dancing girls also escaped. For two months, Pakistani security forces bombarded fighters in Swat and surrounding districts in a USbacked offensive—the latest of multiple assaults against the militants, but Shabnam says her career is over.
Where video and music shops used to stock the latest Indian and Western releases, now they have been cowed into filling shelves with pious Islamic music or more extreme Taliban propaganda.
“The Taliban will bomb my shop if I do not keep the jihadi and religious stocks,” said Ahmad Shah, a young shopkeeper. AFP

FAZED OUT: The Taliban has forced music and video shop owners in the Swat Valley to fill shelves with pious Islamic music or anti-US chants

SQL Server 2008 - Defining Indexes

In this articalyou will learn about Defining Indexes in SQL Server 2005 - clustered and non clustered indexex, The Query Optimizer, to create an index, To create a unique index, To create a clustered index, To create full-text indexes, To change index properties, To rename an index, to delete an index, To specify a fill factor for an index, To create an XML index and To delete XML Indexes.

When data volumes increase, organizations are faced with problems relating to data retrieval and posting. They feel the need for a mechanism that will increase the speed of data access. An index, like the index of a book, enables the database retrieve and present data to the end user with ease. An index can be defined as a mechanism for providing fast access to table rows and for enforcing constraints.

An index can be created by selecting one or more columns in a table that is being searched. It is a kind of ‘on disk’ structure associated with the table or view and contains keys that are built from one or more of the columns in the table or view. This structure known as B-Tree helps the SQL Server find the row or rows associated with the key values. Indexes can be created on computed columns or xml columns also.

Indexes can be clustered or non clustered. A clustered index stores data rows in the table based on their key values. Each table can have only one clustered index as the key values in the data rows are unique and the index is built on the unique key column. When a table has a clustered index, it is known as a clustered table. Non-Clustered indexes have structures that are different from the data rows. A non clustered index key value is used to point to data rows that contain the key value. This value is known as row locator. The structure of the row locator is determined on the basis of the type of storage of the data pages. If the data page is stored as a heap, a row locator becomes a pointer to a row. If the data page is stored in a clustered table the row locator is a clustered index key. Clustered and Non clustered indexes can be unique and indexes are automatically maintained for a table or view whenever the data table is modified.

SQL Server 2005 permits users add non-key columns to leaf level of the non clustered index for by passing existing index key limits and to execute fully covered index queries.

When the primary key and unique constraints of a table column are defined an automatic index is created.

The Query Optimizer uses indexes to reduce disk I/O operations and use of system resources while querying on data. Queries which contain SELECT, UPDATE or DELETE statements require indexes for optimal performance. When a query is executed, each available method is evaluated for retrieving data and the most efficient one is selected by the Query optimizer. The methodology used may be table scans or index scans. In table scans I/O operations are many and resource intensive as all rows in a table are scanned to find the relevant ones. Index scans are used to search the index key columns to find the storage location of rows needed by the query and as the Index contains very few columns, the query executes faster.

SQL Server 2005 provides the user with a new Transact-SQL DDL statement for modifying relational and XML indexes. The CREATE INDEX statement is enhanced to support XML index syntax, partitioning and the included columns. A number of new index options have been added including the ONLINE option that allows for concurrent user access to underlying data during index operations.

To create an index

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table for which you want to create an index andclick Modify.

2. The table opens in Table Designer.

3. From the Table Designer menu, click Indexes/Keys.

4. In the Indexes/Keys dialog box, click Add.

5. Select the new index in the Selected Primary/Unique Key or Index list and set properties for the index in the grid to the right.

6. Specify any other settings for the index and click Close.

7. The index is created in the database when you save the table.

SQL Server allows users create unique indexes on unique columns such as the identity number of the employee or student or whatever is the unique key by which the component data are identified. A set of columns also can be used to create a unique index. The DBA can set the option of ignoring duplicate keys in a unique index if required. The default is No.

To create a unique index

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table and click Modify.
2. The table opens in Table Designer.
3. From the Table Designer menu, click Indexes/Keys.
4. Click Add. The Selected Primary/Unique Key or Index list displays the system-assigned name of the new index.

5. In the grid, click Type.

6. Choose Index from the drop-down list to the right of the property.

7. Under Column name, select the columns you want to index. You can select up to 16 columns. For optimal performance, select only one or two columns per index. For each column you select, indicate whether the index arranges values of this column in ascending or descending order.

8. In the grid, click Is Unique.

9. Choose Yes from the drop-down list to the right of the property.

10. Select the Ignore duplicate keys option if you want to ignore new or updated data that would create a duplicate key in the index (with the INSERT or UPDATE statement).

11. The index is created in the database when you save the table or diagram.

Please note that unique indexes cannot be created on a single column if the column contains NULL in more than one row. Similarly indexes cannot be created on multiple columns if the combination of the columns contains NULL in some rows. The NULL values are treated as duplicate values.

Clustered indexes can be created in SQL Server databases. In such cases the logical order of the index key values will be the same as the physical order of rows in the table. A table can have only one clustered index.

To create a clustered index

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table for which you want to create a clustered index and click Modify.
2. The table opens in Table Designer.
3. From the Table Designer menu, click Indexes/Keys.
4. In the Indexes/Keys dialog box, click Add.
5. Select the new index in the Selected Primary/Unique Key or Index list.
6. In the grid, select Create as Clustered, and choose Yes from the drop-down list to the right of the property.

7. The index is created in the database when you save the table.

A full text index is used when a full text search is required to be performed on all the text based columns of the database. This index relies on a regular index which has to be created before a full text index is created. The regular index is created on a single, non null column. Usually a column with small values is selected for the indexation in a regular index. Often a Catalog is created using an external tool such as SQL Server Management Studio. Textual data from different text file formats are to be stored as image type files before Full text search can be done on the data.

To create full-text indexes

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table for which you want to create a full-text index and click Modify.
2. The table opens in Table Designer.
3. From the Table Designer menu, click Fulltext Index.

4. The Full-text Index dialog box opens. If the database is not enabled for full text indexing the dialog box will have the add button disabled. To enable full text indexing for the database, right click the database>Click properties and check the Full text indexing check box.

5. Then create a catalog by right clicking on Storage>Full Text Catalog and creating a new Catalog and entering the required information in the dialog box that opens.

6. Now open the Full Text Index property dialog box by clicking on it in the Table Designer menu.

7. Click Add.
8. Select the new index in the Selected Full-text Index list and set properties for the index in the grid to the right.
9. Your index is automatically saved in the database when you save your table in Table Designer. The index is available for modification as soon as you create it.

To change index properties

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table you want to open and click Modify.
2. From the Table Designer menu, click Indexes/Keys.
3. Select the index from the Selected Primary/Unique Key or Index list.
4. Change properties in the grid.
5. The changes are saved to the database when you save the table.

System defined names are assigned to indexes based on the database file name. If multiple indexes are created on a table the index names are incremented numerically with _1, _2 etc. An index can be renamed to be unique to a table. Since the automatically created index bears the same name as the primary key or unique constraint in a table, another index cannot be renamed later to match the primary key or unique constraint.

To rename an index

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table with the index you want to rename and clickModify.
2. From the Table Designer menu, click Indexes/Keys.
3. Select the index from the Selected Primary/Unique Key or Index list.
4. In the grid, click Name and type a new name into the text box.

5. The changes are saved to the database when you save the table.

Indexes can be deleted. Usually an index is considered for deletion when the performance of the INSERT,UPDATE and DELETE operations are hindered by the Index.

To delete an index

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table with indexes you want to delete and clickModify.
2. From the Table Designer menu, click Indexes/Keys.
3. In the Indexes/Keys dialog box, select the index you want to delete.
4. Click Delete.
5. The index is deleted from the database when the table is saved.
6. A similar procedure can be followed for deleting a full text index by selecting Full text index from the Table Designer and selecting the index name and clicking delete button.

Microsoft SQL Server database uses a fill factor to specify how full each index page can be. The percentage of free space allotted to an index is defined as the fill factor. This is an important aspect of indexing as the amount of space to be filled by an index has to be determined by the DBA so that performance is not retarded.

To specify a fill factor for an index

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table with an index for which you want to specify a fill factor and click Modify.
2. The table opens in Table Designer.
3. From the Table Designer menu, click Indexes/Keys.
4. The Indexes/Keys dialog box opens.
5. Select the index in the Selected Primary/Unique Key or Index list.
6. In the Fill Factor box, type a number from 0 to 100. The value of 100 implies that the index will fill up completely and the storage space required will be minimal. This setting is recommended only for cases where data is unlikely to change. If data is likely to undergo addition and modification, it is better to set a lower value. Storage space required would be in proportion to the value set.

XML indexes cannot be created using the Index/Keys dialog box. One or more XML indexes can be created for xml data type columns on the basis of a primary xml index. Deleting the primary xml index will result in the deletion of all indexes created on the base of the primary index.

To create an XML index

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table for which you want to create an XML index and click Modify. 2. The table opens in Table Designer.
3. Select the xml column for the index.
4. From the Table Designer menu, click XML Index.

5. In the XML Indexes dialog box, click Add.

6. Select the new index in the Selected XML Index list and set properties for the index in the grid to the right.

To delete XML Indexes

1. In Object Explorer, right-click the table with the XML index you want to delete and click Modify.
2. The table opens in Table Designer.
3. From the Table Designer menu, click XML Index.
4. The XML Index dialog box opens.
5. Click the index you want to delete in the Selected XML Index column.
6. Click Delete.