Free Republic

LEMIYA, Iraq, Sept. 27 — Iqbal Muhammad does not recall her first glimpse of her future husband, because they were both newborns at the time, but she remembers precisely when she knew he was the one. It was the afternoon her uncle walked over from his house next door and proposed that she marry his son Muhammad."I was a little surprised, but I knew right away it was a wise choice," she said, recalling that afternoon nine years ago, when she and Muhammad were 22. "It is safer to marry a cousin than a stranger."Her reaction was typical in a...

Russia: War Destroyed Chechnya's Clan Structure (Part 1) By Francesca Mereu With the world's attention largely focused on the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, Russia's two-year-old war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya -- which it defends as a battle against terrorism -- continues unabated. The Russian military said on 3 January that it had killed more than 100 rebels in a special operation that ended a week of fierce fighting. The war -- Chechnya's second such conflict with Russia in a decade -- has claimed thousands of lives and has irreparably altered the traditional bonds of religion and family...