1. Country: Algeria

2. Population: 32,277,942

3. Territory size : 2,381,741 square kilometers, more than fourfifths desert

4. Form of government: Republic

5. Head of state: Abdelaziz Bouteflika

6. Main economy: Algeria ranks as one of Africa's wealthiest nations. Agriculture plays a strong role in the economy, but because of low productivity, foodstuffs must be imported. The principal food crops include grains, vegetables, and fruits. Sheep and cattle are the principal livestock, and fishing is also important. Mineral production accounts for the largest part of Algeria's gross domestic product, and the country's most important exports are its mineral resources, particularly oil. Since the late 1960s the government has instituted major industrialization programs. The chief monetary unit of Algeria is the dinar Imports-Partners are : France 29%, US 9%, Italy 8%, Germany 6%, Spain 5%

7. Capital City: Algiers

8. Under Which empire in the 19^th or 20^th c : France in Algeria between 1830-1962

9. Independence day: July 5, 1962, from France.

10. Describe its culture and people

There is a mixture of Arab and indigenous Berber, largely integrated with little or no social stratification along racial or ethnic lines; several other ethnic groups present in small numbers. Arabs constitute about 80 percent of total. As for the Languages: Arabic official language and spoken by vast majority; French widely spoken; bilingualism and trilingualism common. Berber spoken in a few isolated Saharan communities and in Tell hill villages

11. Identify key moments of its history:

After a century of rule by France, Algeria became independent in 1962. The surprising first round success of the fundamentalist FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) party in the December 1991 balloting caused the army to intervene, crack down on the FIS, and postpone the subsequent elections. The FIS response has resulted in a continuous low-grade civil conflict with the secular state apparatus, which nonetheless has allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties. FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded itself in January 2000 and many armed militants surrendered under an amnesty program designed to promote national reconciliation. After a century of rule by France, Algeria became independent in 1962. The surprising first round success of the fundamentalist FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) party in the December 1991 balloting caused the army to intervene, crack down on the FIS, and postpone the subsequent elections. The FIS response has resulted in a continuous low-grade civil conflict with the secular state apparatus, which nonetheless has allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties. FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded itself in January 2000 and many armed militants surrendered under an amnesty program designed to promote national reconciliation.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Islam is the official state religion. Non-Muslim minorities include about 45,000 Roman Catholics, small number of Protestants, and very small Jewish community.

13. Describe the form of government: Algeria's bloody overthrow of colonial rule resulted in independence in 1962 and a legacy of an authoritarian political structure dominated by several competing interests. The main actors in the national revolution continued to govern the Algerian polity after independence, struggling during the immediate post-independence period and throughout post-independence Algerian history for political control. This tradition has evolved into a triangular system of government in which the army, party, and state apparatus share power but continually compete. Benjedid's reforms in the 1980s effectively eliminated the party (the National Liberation Front--Front de Libération Nationale-- FLN) from a prominent position in the political configuration while strengthening his hand as president through constitutional reforms. The military, also having suffered a reduction of authority with the political changes implemented by the 1989 constitution, appeared to have little tolerance for the liberalization visualized by Benjedid and the more liberal faction of the FLN. Resurfacing in the early 1990s to "ensure the security of the state," the military has demonstrated once again that the army remains the dominant arm of the political triangle. Recent political events are as much a reflection as a determinant of political culture in Algeria. The nation in late 1993 was under a state of emergency, its condition since the military coup in January 1992. Martial law ruled, essentially invalidating all political structures and institutions. The outcome of this period will be determined not only by the political leaders but also by civil society, political competition within the state, and by mass culture. If the Algerian state is to overcome its political crisis, it needs to resolve its myriad socioeconomic problems. If it is to successfully conquer its economic problems, it will need to become more democratic and decentralized. The current situation is potentially dangerous because of the explosive nature of the political tensions inherent in the repression of a discontented population.

14.Describe the family system and gender system: Before independence the basic Algerian family unit, particularly in the countryside, was the extended family consisting of grandparents, their married sons and families, unmarried sons, daughters if unmarried or if divorced or widowed with their children, and occasionally other related adults. The structure of the family was patriarchal and patrilineal, with the senior male member making all major decisions affecting family welfare, dividing land and work assignments, and representing it in dealings with outsiders. Each married couple usually had a separate room opening onto the family courtyard and prepared meals separately. Women spent their lives under male authority-- first that of their fathers, then of their husbands--and were expected to devote themselves entirely to the activities of the home. Children were raised by all members of the group, who passed on to them the concept and value of family solidarity. Since independence there has been a trend toward smaller family units consisting only of a husband and wife and their unmarried children. Upon marriage a young man who can afford to do so sets up a household for himself and his bride, and on the death of the head of an extended family, male members and their dependents break off into separate households. The trend toward the smaller nuclear family has affected the extended family structure in both urban and rural areas, although it is more pronounced in the former. The nuclear family is fast becoming the prevalent family structure. This change has occurred gradually in response to many factors, including increased urbanization and the development of wage labor.

15.What are the sources for your ideas about this country ?

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1. Country: Bahrein

2. Population: 667,238 note: includes 235,108 non-nationals (July 2003 est.)

3. Territory size: The total area is 707 sq km (273 sq mi)

4. Form of government: constitutional hereditary monarchy

5. Head of state: February 2002, Amir Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa proclaimed himself king.

6. Main economy:

Exports: petroleum and petroleum products, aluminum, textiles

Imports: crude oil, machinery, chemicals

Import partners: Saudi Arabia 28.7%, US 12.5%, UK 6.6%,France 6%, Japan 4%

It is important to note that In Bahrain, petroleum production and refining account for about 60% of export receipts, 60% of government revenues, and 30% of GDP. With its highly developed communication and transport facilities, Bahrain is home to numerous multinational firms with business in the Gulf. Bahrain is dependent on Saudi Arabia for oil revenue granted as aid.

7. Capital City: Manama

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c Bahrain lay under British control from 1861 to 1971

9. Independence date : 15 August 1971 (from UK)

10. Describe its culture and people:

Ethnic groups: Bahraini 63%, Asian 19%, other Arab 10%, Iranian 8%.There is a strong sense of national identity in Bahrain. It is one of the few countries in the Gulf where the nationals represent the majority.Bahrain's population is a young one, with almost half under twenty. Illiteracy has virtually disappeared among young people and a high proportion of Bahrainis speaks English, which is a compulsory second language in schools. However, Arabic is the official language of Bahrain. It is also important to note that Bahrain has invested its oil revenues in educational system development, and boasts an advanced educational system. The first public schools for girls and boys were opened in the 1920s. Schooling and related costs continue to be entirely paid for by the government. Although not compulsory, primary and secondary attendance rates are high and literacy rates are currently among the highest in the region. Higher education is available for secondary school graduates and can be obtained through the Bahrain University, Arabian Gulf University and specialized Institutes including the College of Health Sciences -- operating under the direction of the Ministry of Health -- which trains physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and paramedics. The government has targeted provision of educational services to the Gulf Cooperation Council as a potential growth area, and is actively working to establish Bahrain as a regional center for higher education.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· Bahrain served as a Portuguese way station on the route to India in the 16th century. After two centuries mostly under Iranian control, Bahrain was established as an independent emirate by the al-Khalifa dynasty in 1783.

· Bahrain lay under British control from 1861 to 1971, when it gained its independence.

· After the Iranian Shiite revolution in 1979, unrest grew among Bahrain's Shiite Muslims, and Iran revived its claim to the islands. This tension has troubled the country ever since. Bahrain was part of the allied force that defeated Iraq in the Persian Gulf War in 1991

· 1991 27 October - Bahrain signs a defence cooperation agreement with the United States providing for port facilities and joint military exercises.

· Sheikh Ali Salman, who calls for the restoration of the National Assembly and criticizes the ruling family.

· 1995 15 January - Sheikh Ali Salman is deported and seeks asylum in Britain.

· 1995 15 February - Bahrain rejects International Court of Justice (ICJ) mediation in its dispute with Qatar.

· 1995 26 June - After a reshuffle, the cabinet includes five Shi'i ministers.

· 1995 25 September - A Shi'i cleric, Sheikh Abd-al-Amir al-Jamri, arrested in April, is released from prison.

· 1996 January/February - After bomb explosions in Manama's business quarter, Al-Jamri is arrested again on 18 January. A Sunni lawyer and poet, Ahmad al-Shamlan, is also detained on 8 February, but released in April.

· 1996 3 June - The government says it has uncovered a coup plot by an Iranian-backed group, Hezbollah-Bahrain. Bahrain recalls its ambassador to Iran and downgrades its representation to charge d'affaires level.

· 1996 28 September - The Consultative Council members are increased from 30 to 40.

· 1997 1 April - Bahrain acquires sole ownership of Bapco.

· 1998 February - Sheikh Khalid Bin-Muhammad Bin-Salman Al Khalifah replaces British citizen, Ian Henderson, as Director of the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) .

· 1998 16 -19 December - Bahrain provides military facilities for "Operation Desert Fox", the US and UK bombing campaign against Iraq.

· 1999 6 March - The Emir, Sheikh Isa, dies and is succeeded by his eldest son, Sheikh Hamad. On March 9, Sheikh Hamad's son, Sheikh Salman, becomes Crown Prince.

· 1999 July - Sheikh Abd-al-Amir al-Jamri is sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment but is pardoned by the new Emir.

· 1999 29 December - The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin-Khalifah Al Thani, visits. Both countries establish committee to settle territorial disputes.

· 2000 September - Emir appoints for the first time non-Muslims and women to the Consultative Council, including four women - one of whom is a Christian - and a Jewish businessman.

· 2001 February - Referendum on political reform; Bahrainis overwhelmingly back proposals under which Bahrain would become constitutional monarchy with elected lower chamber of parliament and independent judiciary.

· 2002 14 February - Bahrain turns itself into a constitutional monarchy and allows women to stand for office in a package of reforms.

· 2002 May - Local elections are held, Bahrain's first poll for almost 30 years. For the first time women vote and stand as candidates, but fail to win a seat.

· 2002 October - Parliamentary elections held, the first for nearly 30 years. Authorities say the turnout was more than 50% despite a call by Islamist parties for a boycott.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Shi'a Muslim 70%, Sunni Muslim 30%

13. Describe the form of government: The amir is head of state and also supreme commander of the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF); he exercises ultimate authority in all matters pertaining to the government. In accordance with the constitution adopted in 1973, the office of amir passes from father to eldest son unless the amir designates another male relative to succeed him. This clause of the constitution is not subject to amendment. Although the amir has substantial executive powers, in practice he has delegated decision-making authority to a cabinet since 1956, when an amiri decree created the Administrative Council, an eleven-member body that advised the ruler on policy and supervised the growing bureaucracy. However in 1970 Shaykh Isa ibn Salman issued a decree that transformed the Administrative Council into a twelve-member Council of Ministers. The president of the Council of Ministers, the prime minister, serves as the head of government. The amir appoints the prime minister, who then forms a government by selecting members of the Council of Ministers, albeit in consultation with the amir. The ministers are directly responsible to the prime minister, who, like the amir, has authority to veto a decision by any member of the council. The Council of Ministers gradually expanded to include eighteen members, including the prime minister and the deputy prime minister. In late 1992, the prime minister, deputy prime minister, and seven of the sixteen ministers were members of the ruling Al Khalifa. The prime minister, Khalifa ibn Salman, is the brother of the amir. The amir's son holds the cabinet rank of deputy prime minister. The amir's uncle, Major General Khalifa ibn Ahmad, is minister of defense; and the amir's two first cousins, Muhammad ibn Khalifa and Muhammad ibn Mubarak, are minister of interior and minister of foreign affairs, respectively. Khalifa ibn Salman, the son of the amir's second cousin, is minister of labor and social affairs. A more distantly related cousin, Abd Allah ibn Khalid, a first cousin of the amir's grandfather, is minister of justice and Islamic affairs.

14. Describe the family system and gender system The fact the country is family run country indicate that family ties play a vital role in Bahrain and like other Middle Eastern family structure patriarchal and patrilineal, and it is senior male member who makes all the decisions regarding welfare and work assignments, and marriage However , what distinguish Bahrain from other Middle East countries and Gulf countries is that it has a long tradition has a long tradition of educating women. Bahraini women are considered among the most educated women in the Gulf region and the Middle East. Moreover, Bahraini women were among the first in the region to go abroad to study at university. Bahrain, women account for 70 percent of the students at university. Recent reforms in Bahrain helped advance the role of women even more. One of the greatest achievements is the establishment of The Supreme Council for Women as an advisory council for His Majesty, the King. It helps women achieve the fulfillment of their rights and encourages men to be proud of women.

The number of women in Bahrain's labour force increased from just over 5% in 1971 to almost 40% last year. So the mood is changing as the diagram shows

In fact one of the role modal in Bahrain, Mona Yousuf Al Moayyed, the first woman to be elected to the board of the Bahraini Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is one of the region's role models. She is managing director of a family trading business, called Y.K. Almoayyed & Sons, which experienced 20% growth last year. Although she admits that many women from her own background are ladies of leisure, she argues that there are greater opportunities than before. "Regulations in Bahrain guarantee women's right to work and they treat them as equal to men." However, this is not suggest that women in Bahrain do not faces challenges. They suffer discrimination in employment and salaries. Moreover, when the Sheikh Hamad bin Isa-al Khalifa in October 2001 allowed women run and vote in civic election. Shitte Muslim group turned rowdy and labeled the women’s demand to vote un-islamic”

Women also suffer from absence of family and civil law. Their right in marriage, divorce and child custody are frequently denied and violated. However, the fact the Bahrain is the only Gulf country to allow women to vote and run for office and has establishment women’s union indicates the government’s desire a change in women’s situation and their attempt to eliminate discrimination against them.

15. What are the sources for your ideas about this country?

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ba.html

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http://www.arab.net/bahrain/

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN003483.pdf

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1. Country: Egypt
2. Population: 70,712,345
3. Territory size: Approximately 1 million square kilometers.
4. Form of government : Republic
5. Head of state :President Houni Mubarak
6. Main economy: Main exports are crude oil and petroleum products, cotton, textiles, metal products, chemicals. Main imports are machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, wood products, fuels. Egypt: economy imports-partners are EU 36% (Germany 8%, Italy 8%, France 6%), US 18%, Asian countries 13%, , Middle East 6% (2000) EU 36% (Germany 8%, Italy 8%, France 6%), US 18%, Asian countries 13%, , Middle East 6% (2000)
7. Capital city: Cairo
8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20^th c Britain seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegience to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914.
9. Independence date: 28 February 1922 (from UK)
10. Describe its culture and people: Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world and the second-most populous on the African Continent. Nearly all of the country's 70 million people live in Cairo and Alexandria; elsewhere on the banks of the Nile. Small communities spread throughout the desert regions of Egypt are clustered around oases and historic trade and transportation routes. The proportion of the population living in rural areas has continued to decrease as people move to the cities in search of employment and a higher standard of living. The literacy rate is about 57% of the adult population. Education is free through university and compulsory from ages six through 15. Rates for primary and secondary education have strengthened in recent years. Ninety-three percent of children enter primary school and about one-quarter drop out after the sixth year; in 1994-95, 87% entered primary school and about half dropped out after the sixth year. Major universities include Cairo University (100,000 students), Alexandria University, and the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar University, one of the world's major centers of Islamic learning. Egypt's vast and rich literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of the country and in the Arab world as a whole.

It is important to note that Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arab to win the Nobel prize for literature. Egyptian books and films are available throughout the Middle East.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

• circa 7,000 BC - Settlement of Nile Valley begins.
• circa 3,000 BC - Kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt unite. Successive dynasties witness flourishing trade, prosperity and the development of great cultural traditions. Writing, including hieroglyphics, is used as an instrument of state. Construction of the pyramids - around 2,500 BC - is a formidable engineering achievement.
• 669 BC - Assyrians from Mesopotamia conquer and rule Egypt.
• 525 BC - Persian conquest.
• 332 BC - Alexander the Great, of ancient Macedonia, conquers Egypt, founds Alexandria. A Macedonian dynasty rules until 31 BC.
• 31 BC - Egypt comes under Roman rule; Queen Cleopatra commits suicide after Octavian's army defeats her forces.
• 642 AD - Arab conquest of Egypt.
• 969 - Cairo established as capital.
• 1517 - Egypt absorbed into the Turkish Ottoman empire.
• 1798 - Napoleon Bonaparte's forces invade but are repelled by the British and the Turks in 1801. Egypt once more becomes part of the Ottoman empire.
• 1859-69 - Suez Canal built.
• 1882 - British troops take control of Egypt.
• 1914 - Egypt becomes a British protectorate.
• 1922 - Fu'ad I becomes King of Egypt and Egypt gains its independence.
• 1928 - Muslim Brotherhood founded by Hasan al-Banna.
• 1936 - April - Faruq succeeds his father as King of Egypt .
• 1948 - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria attack the new state of Israel.
• 1949 February - Hasan al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood is assassinated.
• 1952 - King Faruq abdicates in favour of his son Fu'ad II.
• 1952 - Gamal Abdul Nasser leads a coup by the Free Officers' Movement, now known as the July 23 Revolution, which results in Muhammad Najib becoming President and Prime Minister of Egypt.
• 1953 June - Egypt is declared a Republic by Najib.
• 1954 - Nasser becomes prime minister and later, in 1956, president.
• 1954 - Evacuation Treaty signed. British forces, who began a gradual withdrawal in 1936 finally leave Egypt.
• 1956 July - Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal to fund the Aswan High Dam.
• 1956 October - Tripartite Invasion of Egypt by Britain, France and Israel due to the nationalisation of the Suez Canal. A ceasefire is declared in November.
• 1958 February - Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic (UAR) in the first step of their aim for Arab unity.
• 1961 - Syria withdraws from the union with Egypt but Egypt remains known as the UAR.
• 1965 March - King Faruq dies in Rome.
• 1967 May - Egypt, Jordan sign defence pact. Israel says it increases danger of war with Arab states.
• 1967 June - Egypt, Jordan and Syria go to war with Israel and are defeated. Israel takes control of Sinai, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It is known as the Six-Day War.
• 1970 September - Nasser dies and is replaced by his Vice-President, Anwar al-Sadat.
• 1971 - Treaty of Friendship between Egypt and the Soviet Union is signed.
• 1971 - Egypt's new constitution is introduced and the country is renamed Arab Republic of Egypt.
• 1971 - The Aswan High Dam is completed. It proves to have a huge impact on irrigation, agriculture and industry in Egypt.
• 1973 October - Egypt and Syria go to war with Israel during Israel's celebration of Yom Kippur to reclaim the land they lost in 1967. Egypt begins negotiations for the return of Sinai after the war.
• 1975 June - The Suez Canal is reopened. It had been closed since the 1967 war.
• 1976 - Anwar al-Sadat ends the Treaty of Friendship with the Soviet Union.
• 1978 September - Camp David Accords for peace with Israel are signed.
• 1979 March - The peace treaty between Egypt and Israel is signed. Egypt is then condemned by the other Arab nations and excluded from the Arab League.
• 1981 6 October - Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated by Jihad members.
• 1981 October - A National Referendum approves Husni Mubarak as the new President of Egypt.
• 1987 October - Mubarak begins his second term in office.
• 1989 Egypt rejoins the Arab League.
• 1993 October - Mubarak begins his third term in office.
• 1995 June - Mubarak is the target of an assassination attempt in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, upon his arrival at a summit of the Organization of African Unity.
• 1997 - 58 tourists are killed by gunmen in front of the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor. It is alleged that Egypt's Islamic Group (al-jama'ah al'islamiyah) is responsible.
• 1999 October - Mubarak begins his fourth term in office.
• 2000 December - Egypt, Lebanon and Syria agree on a billion-dollar project for a pipeline to carry Egyptian gas under the Mediterranean to the Lebanese port of Tripoli.
• 2002 February - Hundreds of passengers are killed after their train catches fire south of Cairo.
• 2002 April - Egypt downgrades relations with Israel - restricting contacts to those which "serve the Palestinian cause" - after Israel's crackdown on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat

12. Describe the religions of the people: Muslim (mostly Sunni) 94%, Coptic Christian and other 6%.

13. Describe its form of government:

The Egyptian Constitution provides for a strong executive. Authority is vested in an elected president who can appoint one or more vice presidents, a prime minister, and a cabinet. The president's term runs for 6 years. Egypt's legislative body, the People's Assembly, has 454 members--444 popularly elected and 10 appointed by the president. The constitution reserves 50% of the assembly seats for "workers and peasants." The assembly sits for a 5-year term but can be dissolved earlier by the President. There also is a 264-member Shura (consultative) Council, in which 88 members are appointed and 174 elected for 6-year terms. Below the national level, authority is exercised by and through governors and mayors appointed by the central government and by popularly elected local councils.

Opposition party organizations make their views public and represent their followers at various levels in the political system, but power is concentrated in the hands of the President and the National Democratic Party majority in the People's Assembly and those institutions dominate the political system. In addition to the ruling National Democratic Party, there are 16 other legally recognized parties.

The November 2000 elections were generally considered to have been more transparent and better executed than past elections, because of universal judicial monitoring of polling stations. On the other hand, opposition parties continue to lodge credible complaints about electoral manipulation by the government. There are significant restrictions on the political process and freedom of expression for non-governmental organizations, including professional syndicates and organizations promoting respect for human rights.

Egypt's judicial system is based on European (primarily French) legal concepts and methods. Under the Mubarak government, the courts have demonstrated increasing independence, and the principles of due process and judicial review have gained greater respect. The legal code is derived largely from the Napoleonic Code. Marriage and personal status (family law) are primarily based on the religious law of the individual concerned, which for most Egyptians is Islamic Law (Sharia).

14. Describe the family system and gender system:

Family is the most significant unit of Egyptian society. In fact an important goal of marriage was to ensure the continuity of a family. A husband and wife were not considered a family until they produced their first child. After the child's birth, the parents were addressed as father and mother of Muhammad or Amal or whatever was the name of their child. An ideal family in Egypt is a extended family consisting of a man, his wife (or wives), his single and married sons and their wives and children, as well as his unmarried daughters. Although an extended family that lived together was considered the ideal, it was not common. A nuclear family consisting of parents and their unmarried children was the norm in cities. Even in rural areas, nuclear families accounted for approximately 80 to 90 percent of all households. Nevertheless, relations with in-laws, grandparents, nieces, and nephews continued to have an impact on the lives of most adults. Newly married couples typically set up their households near the homes of the groom's parents and married brothers. Tensions between wives and their mothers-in-law, as well as tensions among wives of brothers, often disrupted the extended family's harmony. In Egypt married men have considerable autonomy, because they are responsible for the families' livelihoods and households. Women do not have such autonomy. In most cases, marriage merely substituted a woman's dependence on her husband for dependence on her father. However, woman is entitled to make demands of her father and brothers, especially in case of marital difficulties, throughout her life. Most women generally preferred to live near home and thus tried to avoid marriages with men whose families lived in other cities or villages.

15. What are your sources for your ideas about this country?

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http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5309.htm#gov

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1. Country : Iran

2. Population: 66,622,704

3. Territory size: Its area is about 1,648,000 sq km (about 636,300 sq mi).

4. Form of government: theocratic republic

5. Head of state: President Mohammad Khatami

6. Main economy : More than 90 percent of Iran's export earnings come from the nation's oil fields, considered among the world's richest. Agriculture is also important, and the principal cash crop is fresh and dried fruit, which accounts for 30 percent of non-petroleum export earnings. Commercial fishing in the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea yields carp, herring, and tuna. Iranian caviar (sturgeon eggs) is considered among the best in the world. Manufacturing products include textiles, processed food, and construction materials. The Iranian unit of currency is the rial (1750 rials equal U.S.$1; 1996).

7. Capital City: Tehran

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c In 1941 Britain and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) occupied areas of the country to protect the oil fields from German seizure

9. Independence date: 1 April 1979

10. Describe its culture and people: Iran has a heterogeneous population speaking a variety of Indo-Iranian, Semitic, and Turkic languages. However, the official language of Iran is Persian (the Persian term for which is Farsi). It is the language of government and public instruction and is the mother tongue of half of the population. Persian is spoken as a second language by a large proportion of the rest. Many different dialects of Persian are spoken in various parts of the Central Plateau, and people from each city can usually be identified by their speech. It is important to note that there is no There is no accepted standard transliteration of Persian into Latin letters, and Iranians write their names for Western use in a variety of ways, often following French spelling. Among scholars and librarians a profound dispute exists between those who think Persian should be transliterated in conformity with the rules for Arabic and those who insist that Persian should have its own rules because it does not use all of the same sounds as Arabic.

Iranians have a very strong sense of class structure. In the past they referred to their society as being divided into tiers, or tabagheh, which were identified by numbers: the first tier corresponded to the upper classes; the second, to the middle classes; and the third, to the lower classes. Under the influence of revolutionary ideology, society is now perceived as being divided into the wealthy, a term generally prefixed with negative adjectives; the middle classes; and the mostazafin, a term that literally means disinherited. In reality, Iranian society has always been more complex than a three-tier division implies because each of the three broad classes is subdivided into several social groups. These divisions have existed in both urban and rural areas.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· The fall of the Sassanid Empire to Muslim Arabs in 641 changed Iran for all time. The lands were incorporated into the caliphate, and Iran was henceforth an Islamic country. In the mid-11th century, Iran was conquered by the Seljuk Turks and, during the ensuing four centuries, was dominated successively by the Seljuks, the Mongols, and the Turkomans. The Turkomans were overthrown by Ismail I. Ismail proclaimed himself shah, founding the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722) and establishing Shiite doctrine as the official Iranian religion. Over the next century, Iran declined. In 1722 the Safavids were overthrown by the Afghan army of Mir Mahmud.

· The 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed a struggle between Britain and Russian for control in Iran: Russia established influence in northern Iran, while Britain gained control in the Persian Gulf area.

· In 1941 Britain and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) occupied areas of the country to protect the oil fields from German seizure.

· 1941 - The Shah's pro-Axis allegiance in World War II leads to the Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran and the deposition of the Shah in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

· In 1945 the Iranian government requested the withdrawal of occupying troops, concerned that Soviet forces were encouraging separatist movements in the northern provinces. All troops were withdrawn by 1946.

· 1950 - Ali Razmara becomes prime minister and is assassinated less than nine months later. He is succeeded by the nationalist, Mohammad Mossadeq.

· 1953 22 August - With the help of western backing, mainly due to oil interests in the country, the Shah overthrows Mossadeq in a coup d'etat staged by General Fazlollah Zahedi.

· 1963 26 January - The Shah embarks on a campaign to modernise and westernise the country. He launches the 'White Revolution', a programme of land reform and social and economic modernization. During the late 1960's the Shah became increasingly dependent on the Secret Police (SAVAK) in controlling those opposition movements critical of his reforms.

· 1978 September - The Shah's policies alienate the clergy and his authoritarian rule leads to riots, strikes and mass demonstrations. Martial law is imposed.

· 1979 16 January - As the political situation deteriorates, the Shah and his family are forced into exile.

· 1979 1 February - The Islamic fundamentalist, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, returns to Iran following 14 years of exile in Iraq and France for opposing the regime.

· 1980 25 January - Abolhasan Bani-Sadr is elected the first President of the Islamic Republic. His government begins work on a major nationalization programme.

· 1980 27 July - The exiled Shah dies of cancer in Egypt.

· 1980 22 September - Iraq invades Iran following border skirmishes and a dispute over the Shatt al-Arab waterway. This marks the beginning of a war that will last eight years.

· 1981 22 June - Bani-Sadr is dismissed, he later flees to France.

· 1988 20 July - Iran accepts a ceasefire agreement with Iraq following negotiations in Geneva under the aegis of theUN.

· 1989 14 February - Ayatollah Khomeini issues a religious edict (fatwa) ordering Muslims to kill British author, Salman Rushdie, for his novel, 'The Satanic Verses', considered blasphemous to Islam.

· 1989 3 June - Ayatollah Khomeini dies. On 4 June, President Khamene'i is appointed as new supreme leader.

· 1989 17 August - Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani is sworn in as the new president.

· 1990 - Iran remains neutral following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, denouncing both Baghdad's conquest of Kuwait and any long-term presence of US forces in the region..

· 1997 23 May - Mohammad Khatami wins the presidential election by a landslide, with 70% of the vote beating the conservative ruling elite.

· 1998 September - Iran deploys thousands of troops on its border with Afghanistan after the Taleban admits killing eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist in Mazar-e Sharif.

· 2001 April - Iran and Saudi Arabia sign major security accord to combat terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime.

· 2001 8 June - President Khatami re-elected for a second term after winning just under 77% of the vote.

· 2002 January - US President George Bush describes Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil". He warns that the proliferation of long-range missiles being developed in these countries is as great a danger to the US as terrorism. The speech causes outrage in Iran and is condemned by reformists and conservatives alike.ment.

· 2003 September - UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, gives Tehran weeks to prove it is not pursuing an atomic weapons programme.

· 2003 October - Shirin Ebadi becomes Iran's first Nobel Peace Prize winner; lawyer and human rights campaigner became Iran's first female judge in 1975 but was forced to resign after 1979 revolution.

· 2003 November - Iran says it is suspending its uranium enrichment programme and will allow tougher UN inspections of its nuclear facilities.

· 2003 December - Tens of thousands are killed in an earthquake in south-east Iran; the city of Bam is devastated.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Shi'a Muslim 89%, Sunni Muslim 10%, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i

13. Describe the form of government: In 1979 a new constitution established an Islamic republic overseen by a religious leader, called the wali faqih. The chief executive and head of state is a president, elected to a four-year term. The president appoints a prime minister responsible to a unicameral parliament called the Majlis. Its 270 members, elected for terms of four years, can dismiss the country's president by a no-confidence vote. Laws enacted by the Majlis must be approved by the Council of Guardians, which ensures accordance with Islamic code and the constitution.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: For most Iranians the reciprocal obligations and privileges that define relations between kinsfolk--from the parent-child bond to more distant ones--have been more important than those associated with any other kind of social alignment. Economic, political, and other forms of institutional activity have been significantly colored by family ties. This has been true not only for the nuclear family of parents and offspring but also for the aggregate kinsfolk, near and distant, who together represent the extended family at its outermost boundary. In fact, Business operations have continued to be family affairs; often large government loans for business ventures have been obtained simply because the owners were recognized as members of families with good Islamic and revolutionary credentials. Political activities also followed family lines. Several brothers or first cousins might join the Islamic Republican Party.

Religious law supports the sanctity of the family in diverse ways, defining the conditions for marriage, divorce, inheritance, and guardianship. Additional laws have been passed by the Majlis that reinforce and refine religious law and are designed to protect the integrity of the family. The head of the household--the father and the husband--expects obedience and respect from others in the family. In return, he is obligated to support them and to satisfy their spiritual, social, and material needs. In practice, he is more a strict disciplinarian. He also may be a focus of love and affection, and family members may feel a strong sense of duty toward him. Considerable conflict and irresolution have resulted in many families, especially in urban areas, because young Iranians, imbued with revolutionary religious views or secular values, have not been able to reconcile these new ideas with the traditional values of their fathers.

Marriage regulations are defined by Shia religious law, although non- Shias are permitted to follow their own religious practices. Before the Revolution, the legal marriage age was eighteen for females and twenty- one for males, although in practice most couples, especially among lower- class urban and rural families, actually were younger than the law permitted when they married. Consequently, the average marriage age for both sexes was 18.9 years. Since the Revolution, the minimum legal age for marriage for both males and females has been lowered to fifteen and thirteen years, respectively, although even younger boys and girls may be married with the permission of their fathers. The average age of marriage is believed to have fallen as a result of official encouragement of earlier marriages.

The selection of a marriage partner is normally determined by customary preference, economic circumstances, and geographic considerations. Among the Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians, the choice may be restricted by religious practice. There is a distinct preference for marriage within extended kin networks, and a high incidence of marriages among first and second cousins exists. A traditionally preferred marriage is between the children of two brothers, although this kind of consanguineous marriage was declining among the old regime elite and secular middle class by the eve of the Revolution. Marriage arrangements in villages and among the lower and traditional middle classes of urban areas tend to follow traditional patterns. When a young man is judged ready for marriage, his parents will visit the parents of a girl whom they believe to be a suitable match. In many cases, the man will have already expressed an interest in the girl and have asked his parents to begin these formalities. If the girl's parents show similar interest in the union, the conversation quickly turns to money. There must be an agreement on the amont of the bride-price that will be given to the bride's family at the time of marriage. In principle this payment is supposed to compensate the girl's family for her loss, but in practice it is used primarily to finance the cost of the wedding. The exact sum varies according to the wealth, social position, and degree of kinship of the two families. Once the two families have agreed to the marriage, the prospective bride and groom are considered engaged. The courtship period now commences and may extend for a year or more, although generally the engagement lasts less than twelve months. The actual wedding involves a marriage ceremony and a public celebration. The ceremony is the signing of a marriage contract in the presence of a mullah (see Glossary). One significant feature of the marriage contract is the mahriyeh, a stipulated sum that the groom gives to his new bride. The mahriyeh usually is not paid at the time of the marriage, especially in marriages between cousins. The contract notes that it is to be paid, however, in the event of divorce or, in case of the husband's death, to be deducted from his estate before the inheritance is divided according to religious law. If the mahriyeh is waived, as sometimes happens in urban areas, this too must be stipulated in the marriage contract.

Polygamy in Iran is regulated by Islamic custom, which permits a man to have as many as four wives simultaneously, provided that he treats them equally. During the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah, the government attempted to discourage polygamy through legal restrictions, such as requiring the permission of the first wife before the state would register a second marriage. The practice of kin marriages also tended to work against polygamous marriages, since families would exert pressure on men not to take a second wife. No reliable figures existed on the number of polygynous marriages in the 1960s and 1970s, but they were believed to be on the decline and largely confined to the older generation. After the Revolution, the republican government abolished the secular codes relating to marriage and decreed polygyny acceptable as long as such marriages were in accordance with Shia religious law. Shia Islam, unlike Sunni Islam, also recognizes a special form of temporary marriage called muta. In a muta marriage, the man and woman sign a contract agreeing to live together as husband and wife for a specified time, which can be as brief as several hours or as long as ninety-nine years. The man agrees to pay a certain amount of money for the duration of the contract. Provision is also made for the support of any offspring. There is no limit on the number of muta marriages that a man may contract. Traditionally, muta marriages have been common in Shia pilgrimage centers such as Mashhad and An Najaf in Iraq. Under the monarchy, the government refused to grant any legal recognition to muta marriages in an effort to discourage the practice. Since the Revolution, however, muta marriages have again become acceptable. Under both Islamic law and traditional practice, divorce in Iran historically has been easier for a man to obtain than for a woman. Men could exercise the right of repudiation of wives according to the guidelines of Islamic law. Women were permitted to leave their husbands on narrowly defined grounds, such as insanity or impotence. Beginning in the mid-1960s, the royal government attempted to broaden the grounds upon which women could seek divorce through the Family Protection Law. This legislation was frequently criticized by the clergy and was one of the first laws abrogated after the Revolution. In 1985, however, legislation was passed permitting women to initiate divorce proceedings in certain limited circumstances.

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1. Country: Iraq

2. Population: 24,001,816

3. Territory size: 438,317 sq km (169,235 sq mi)

4. Form of government: Republic

5. Head of state: Saddam Hussein until 9 April 2003. On 6 May 2003 president Bush appointed retired diplomat Paul Bremer as his special envoy to Iraq

6. Main economy: Iraq's economy is based on petroleum, and most of the few large manufacturing industries are centered around oil. There is no doubt that falling oil prices and Iraq's war with Iran hampered the petroleum industry in the 1980s, and the economic situation worsened in the 1990s, after Iraq's failed invasion of Kuwait resulted in a trade embargo, preventing the sale of Iraqi oil. Iraq is also agricultural, with productive farmland in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Dates are the chief export, accounting for a major portion of world trade in the crop. Iraq's currency is the dinar.

7. Capital City: Baghdad

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c : Britain seized control of Iraq in 1920

9. Independence date: 3 October 1932 (from League of Nations mandate under British administration)

10. Describe its culture and people: Most people are Arabs , but 15 to 20 percent are Kurds, dwelling in the northern highlands. In rural areas, many people still live in tribal communities, leading a nomadic or seminomadic existence and keeping herds of camels, horses, and sheep. The official language is Arabic.
Education is free, and six years of primary education are compulsory. However, schools are not available in many rural areas. The cultural heritage of Iraq is primarily Arabic, and the influence is represented in many of the surviving antiquities. Several notable museums also display relics of the region's early Mesopotamian and Babylonian cultures.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· 1920 25 April - Iraq is placed under British mandate.

· 1921 23 August - Faysal, son of Hussein Bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, is crowned Iraq's first king.

· 1932 3 October - Iraq becomes an independent state.

· 1958 14 July - The monarchy is overthrown in a military coup led by Brig Abd-al-Karim Qasim and Col Abd-al-Salam Muhammad Arif. Iraq is declared a republic and Qasim becomes prime minister.

· 1963 8 February - Qasim is ousted in a coup led by the Arab Socialist Baath Party (ASBP). Arif becomes president.

· 1963 18 November - The Baathist government is overthrown by Arif and a group of officers.

· 1966 17 April - After Arif is killed in a helicopter crash on 13 April, his elder brother, Maj-Gen Abd-al-Rahman Muhammad Arif, succeeds him as president.

· 1968 17 July - A Ba'thist led-coup ousts Arif and Gen Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr becomes president.

· 1970 11 March - The Revolution Command Council (RCC) and Mullah Mustafa Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), sign a peace agreement.

· 1972 - A 15-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation is signed between Iraq and the Soviet Union.

· 1972 - Iraq nationalizes the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC).

· 1974 - In implementation of the 1970 agreement, Iraq grants limited autonomy to the Kurds but the KDP rejects it.

· 1975 March - At a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Algiers, Iraq and Iran sign a treaty ending their border disputes.

· 1979 16 July - President Al-Bakr resigns and is succeeded by Vice-President Saddam Hussein.

· 1980 1 April - The pro-Iranian Dawah Party claims responsibility for an attack on Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, at Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad.

Iran-Iraq war

· 1980 4 September - Iran shells Iraqi border towns (Iraq considers this as the start of the Iran/Iraq war).

· 1980 17 September - Iraq abrogates the 1975 treaty with Iran.

· 1980 22 September - Iraq attacks Iranian air bases.

· 1980 23 September - Iran bombs Iraqi military and economic targets.

· 1981 7 June - Israel attacks an Iraqi nuclear research centre at Tuwaythah near Baghdad.

Chemical attack on Kurds

· 1988 16 March - Iraq is said to have used chemical weapons against the Kurdish town of Halabjah.

· 1988 20 August - A ceasefire comes into effect to be monitored by the UN Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group (Uniimog).

· 1990 15 March - Farzad Bazoft, an Iranian-born journalist with the London Observer newspaper, accused of spying on a military installation, is hanged in Baghdad.

· Iraq invades Kuwait

· 1990 2 August - Iraq invades Kuwait and is condemned by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 660 which calls for full withdrawal.

· 1990 6 August - UNSC Resolution 661 imposes economic sanctions on Iraq.

· 1990 8 August - Iraq announces the merger of Iraq and Kuwait.

· 1990 29 November - UNSC Resolution 678 authorizes the states cooperating with Kuwait to use "all necessary means" to uphold UNSC Resolution 660.

· 1991 16 -17 January - The Gulf War starts when the coalition forces begin aerial bombing of Iraq ("Operation Desert Storm").

· 1991 13 February - US planes destroy an air raid shelter at Amiriyah in Baghdad, killing more than 300 people.

· 1991 24 February - The start of a ground operation which results in the liberation of Kuwait on 27 February.

· Ceasefire

· 1991 3 March - Iraq accepts the terms of a ceasefire.

· 1991 Mid-March/early April - Iraqi forces suppress rebellions in the south and the north of the country.

· 1991 8 April - A plan to establish a UN safe-haven in northern Iraq to protect the Kurds is approved at a European Union meeting. On 10 April the USA orders Iraq to end all military activity in this area.

· 1992 26 August - A no-fly zone, which Iraqi planes are not allowed to enter, is set up in southern Iraq, south of latitude 32 degrees north.

· 1993 27 June - US forces launch a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad in retaliation for the attempted assassination of US President George Bush in Kuwait in April.

· 1994 29 May - Saddam Hussein becomes prime minister.

· 1994 10 November - Iraqi National Assembly recognises Kuwait's borders and its independence.

· 1995 August - Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, Gen Hussein Kamil Hasan al-Majid, his brother and their families leave Iraq and are granted asylum in Jordan.

· 1995 15 October - Saddam Hussein wins a referendum allowing him to remain president for another 7 years.

Pardoned son-in-law killed

· 1996 12 December - Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday, is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in Baghdad.

· 1998 31 October - Iraq ends all forms of cooperation with the UN Special Commission to Oversee the Destruction of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (Unscom).

· Operation Desert Fox

· 1998 16-19 December - After UN staff are evacuated from Baghdad, the USA and UK launch a bombing campaign, "Operation Desert Fox", to destroy Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.

· 1999 19 February - Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, spiritual leader of the Shia community, is assassinated in Najaf.

· 1999 17 December - UNSC Resolution 1284 creates the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) to replace Unscom. Iraq rejects the resolution.

· 2000 October - Iraq resumes domestic passenger flights, the first since the 1991 Gulf War. Commercial air links re-established with Russia, Ireland and Middle East.

· 2001 February - Britain, US carry out bombing raids to try to disable Iraq's air defence network. The bombings have little international support.

· 2001 May - Saddam's son Qusay elected to the leadership of the ruling Baath Party, fuelling speculation that he's being groomed to succeed his father.

· 2002 April - Baghdad suspends oil exports to protest against Israeli incursions into Palestinian territories. Despite calls by Saddam Hussein, no other Arab countries follow suit. Exports resume after 30 days.

· Weapons inspectors return

· 2002 September - US President George W Bush tells sceptical world leaders gathered at a UN General Assembly session to confront the "grave and gathering danger" of Iraq - or stand aside as the United States acts. In the same month British Prime Minister Tony Blair publishes a dossier on Iraq's military capability.

· 2002 November - UN weapons inspectors return to Iraq backed by a UN resolution which threatens serious consequences if Iraq is in "material breach" of its terms.

· Saddam ousted

· 2003 17 March - UK's ambassador to the UN says the diplomatic process on Iraq has ended; arms inspectors evacuate; US President George W Bush gives Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war.

· 2003 20 March - American missiles hit targets in Baghdad, marking the start of a US-led campaign to topple Saddam Hussein. In the following days US and British ground troops enter Iraq from the south.

· 2003 9 April - US forces advance into central Baghdad. Saddam Hussein's grip on the city is broken. In the following days Kurdish fighters and US forces take control of the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. There is widespread looting in the capital and other cities.

· 2003 August - Bomb attack at Jordanian embassy in Baghdad kills 11 people. Bomb attack at UN HQ in Baghdad kills 22 people including UN's chief envoy to Iraq. Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, or Chemical Ali, captured. Car bomb in Najaf kills 125 people including Shia leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim.

· 2003 September - Former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix says Iraq probably destroyed all its weapons of mass destruction more than a decade ago..

· 2003 30 November - US military sources say over 50 Iraqi militants were killed in clashes with US troops in central city of Samarra. Iraqi officials say that US wildly exaggerated casualty figures.

· 2003 14 December - Saddam Hussein's capture announced.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%

13. Describe the form of government: During Saddam Hussein ruling Iraq was governed under a provisional constitution adopted in 1968. The principal executive organization is the Revolutionary Command Council, which selects a president. In practice, political power is centralized in a single leader who serves as the nation's president, prime minister, and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. A legislature, the 250-member National Assembly, was established in 1980. The 18 provinces of Iraq were administered by governors appointed by the national government; towns and cities are led by councils headed by mayors. Under United Nations (UN) protection, the Kurds established a government in northern Iraq in the early 1990s, but it was largely ineffective because of infighting among Kurdish groups.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: In Iraq family remains the primary focus of loyalty; and it is in this context, rather than the broader one of corporate loyalties defined by sectarian, ethnic, or economic considerations, that the majority of Iraqis find the common denominators of their everyday lives. A mutually protective attitude among relatives is taken as a matter of course. Relatives tend to be preferred as business partners since they are believed to be more reliable than persons over whom one does not have the hold of kinship ties. On higher levels, deeply ingrained family loyalty manifests itself in business and public life. The characteristic form of family organization involves a large group of kinsmen related to one another through descent and marriage, that is, an extended family usually consisting of three generations. Such an extended family may all live together, which is the more traditional pattern, or may reside separately like a nuclear family, but still share the values and functions of an extended family, such as depending upon one another and deferring to the older generation. As Iraqi society has become increasingly urbanized, however, the tendency toward nuclear family social organization, as opposed merely to residence, has become more prevalent. The status of an individual is traditionally determined by the position of his or her family in society and the individual's position within that group. The family transmits values and standards of behavior of the society to its members and holds them responsible for each other's conduct. It traditionally determines occupations and selects marriage partners. Until 1959 family life was subject to regulation only according to religious law and tradition. All Muslims were brought under a single body of family law for the first time in 1959 with the enactment of a secular law on personal status, based on sharia, statutes from other Islamic countries, and legal precedents established in Iraqi courts; a brief amendment was enacted in 1963. The law spells out provisions governing the right to contract marriage, the nature of the contract, economic rights of the partners, divorce and child custody, as well as bequests and inheritance. The basic structural unit of the family consists of a senior couple, their sons, the sons' wives and children, and unmarried daughters. Other dependent relatives may also be attached to the group. The senior male is the head of the family; he manages its properties and has the final voice in decisions.The actual number of persons who make up the household is determined by the family's economic circumstances, pattern of living, and mode of habitation. In an agricultural setting, as long as ownership of land and other possessions is vested in the family as a whole, the possibilities for a young man to set up an independent household are limited. In urban centers, on the other hand, young men can avail themselves of wage-earning employment. Authority within the family is determined by seniority and sex. The father, in theory, has absolute authority over the activities of the members of the household, both within the confines of the house and outside. He decides what education his children will receive, what occupations his sons will enter, and, usually in consultation with his wife, whom his children will marry. These authority patterns also have been greatly weakened in the urban environment and by the shift of more and more responsibilities from the family to larger social institutions, such as the schools.

An even greater change in the traditional pattern of male dominance has been brought about by the war. Because Iraq is numerically a much smaller nation than Iran, it has experienced considerable difficulty maintaining an adequate defense on the battlefront. To field a sufficient force it has had to draw down the available labor pool on the home front, and to compensate has mobilized women. In the mid-1980s, observers reported that in many ministries the overwhelming proportion of employees were women. Foreign contractors have encountered women supervisors on huge construction projects, women doctors in the hospitals, and even women performing law enforcement roles. This emancipation-- extraordinary for an Arab country--was sanctioned by the government, which expended a significant amount of propaganda publicizing the role of women in helping to win the war. The government further maintained that after the war women would be encouraged to retain their newfound work roles; this was doubtful, however, because in the same breath the government declared its determination to increase the birthrate. Moreover, woman in Saddam's Iraq, you could have faced: beheading and rape in order to extract information and forced confessions from detained family members; and blackmail Iraqi men into future cooperation with the regime. In fact Saddam Hussein's thugs routinely tortured and killed female dissidents and the female relatives of Iraqi oppositionists and defectors. In 1990, Saddam Hussein introduced Article 111 into the Iraqi Penal Code. This law exempted men from any kind of punishment if they kill their female relatives in defense of their family's honor. However, now that the Coalition forces ousted the Saddam regime, women of Iraq have a critical role to play in the political and economic revival of their society and the building a democratic government that oppose any attempt to create a theocracy that tramples on individual human rights -- women's or men's.

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1. Country: Israel

2. Population: 6,029,529 (July 2002 est.) note: includes about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, about 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, more than 5,000 in the Gaza Strip, and fewer than 177,000 in East Jerusalem (February 2003 est.)

3. Territory size About 20,700 square kilometers.

4. Form of government: parliamentary democracy

5. Head of state: President Moshe Katzav

6. Main economy: Most of the country's expenditures are devoted to the military and to absorbing immigrants. Israeli agriculture provides for most of the nation's food needs. Principal crops include fruits, vegetables, and grains. Livestock include cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry. A chief assets of the Israeli mining industry include the potash and bromide extracted from the salt deposits of the Dead Sea. Israel is the world's largest exporter of these two resources. Israel's principal industrial products are processed food, beverages, and tobacco; electrical machinery; chemical, petroleum, and coal products; metal products; textiles and clothing; construction materials; and precision instruments. The unit of currency is the new shekel (3.19 new shekels equal U.S.$1; 1996). A great deal of foreign exchange is derived from expenditures by tourists and the donations of Jews living in other countries.

7. Capital City: Jerusalem

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c: Under British occupation

9. Independence date: 14 May 1948 (from the League of Nations mandate under British administration

10. Describe its culture and people: The population of Israel is 91 percent urban and about 82 percent Jewish, most of the non-Jewish population being Muslim Arabs. Because of the complex history of the region considerable racial, cultural, and ethnic diversity exists. The population of Israel (1997 estimate) is 5,534,669. Besides Jerusalem, other major cities include Tel Aviv-Yafo, Haifa, Holon, and Ramat Gan. Hebrew and Arabic are the country's official languages. Education is free and compulsory for all children between 5 and 15 years of age. A system of Jewish religious schools exists parallel to the secular system. Institutions of higher education include the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University. Israeli culture reflects the diverse backgrounds of its people, and vigorous traditions of literature, folk song, and folk dance thrive.

11. Identify key moments of its history: Although the state of Israel declared its independence in 1948, its modern history begins with the movement of Zionism, which was founded in 1897 with the aim of securing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. For previous history of the territory that is now Israel, see Palestine.

By World War I (1914-1918), the Zionist movement had support from Jews in Europe and North America and had won backing from Britain. In 1922 the League of Nations approved a mandate for Palestine, which entrusted Britain with administering Palestine and the reconstitution of a Jewish national home in that country.

During the British mandatory period, which lasted until 1948, the Yishuv, or Jewish community, in Palestine increased tenfold when large numbers of Jews fled Nazi persecution before and during World War II (1939-1945). The development of extensive Zionist agricultural and industrial enterprises in Palestine also took place, and over time Arab opposition to British rule and to Zionism grew.

In 1947 Britain decided to leave Palestine, and the United Nations (UN) passed a resolution calling for the partition of the area into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as an international zone under UN jurisdiction, and with the states joined in an economic union.

In response, Arab protests against partition erupted in violence, leading in 1948 to the first Arab-Israeli war, called the War of Independence by Israel. The war involved Egypt, Transjordan (now Jordan), Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, and other Arab armies battling against Israel, and it ended in 1949 with UN-arranged armistice agreements, including defined frontiers, between the countries.

Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, exercised the strongest influence on Israel's history during the first decade of its existence, placing great emphasis on national security and the development of modern armed forces. Immediately after gaining independence, Israel was opened to Jewish immigrants from all over the world, and in three decades Israel's population increased fivefold. Lack of skilled labor and the burdens of defense, however, created serious economic problems, despite extensive international economic aid.

Attempts to convert the 1949 Arab-Israeli armistice agreements into peace treaties were unsuccessful, with Arab refugees and the status of Jerusalem being key points of contention. Frequent incursions by refugee guerrilla bands and attacks by Arab military units were made, and Israel answered with forceful retaliation. Conflict between Israel and Egypt led to the second Arab-Israeli War in late 1956, with Israel supported by Britain and France. Israel was able to seize the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula before fighting was halted by the UN, which forced Israel, France, and Britain to leave Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Israel's economic situation improved, but by the 1960s, one of the country's major problems became the economic and social absorption of new waves of Jewish immigrants from Islamic countries.

In 1967, concerned about Arab nationalism, the formation of a united Arab military command, and the massing of Arab troops along the borders, Israel attacked Egypt, Jordan, and Syria simultaneously. This conflict, known as the Six-Day War, left Israel in control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, taken from Egypt; East Jerusalem and the West Bank, taken from Jordan; and the Golan Heights, taken from Syria.

The occupied territories became a major political issue in Israel after 1967, with Israelis split over whether to annex or to withdraw from the territories. The 1967 war was followed by an upsurge of Palestinian Arab nationalism. Several guerrilla organizations within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) carried out terrorist attacks on Israel, and the group succeeded in gaining widespread international support, including UN recognition, despite public opinion against their terrorist acts.

In 1973 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel unexpectedly on Yom Kippur, Israel's holiest fast day. Israeli forces managed to defeat the attackers, but at great human and financial cost. During 1974 the United States managed to work out military disengagements between Israel and Egypt and Syria. General dissatisfaction in Israel regarding the handling of the Yom Kippur War led to a suArab-Israeli War of 1973ick political changes until 1977, when Menachem Begin, head of the Likud movement, became prime minister. The Likud was formed in 1973 by nationalist groups opposed to any territorial concessions. Despite continued economic struggles, Begin achieved a peace settlement with President Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt. After protracted negotiations sponsored by the United States, an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty was signed in 1979.

The first comprehensive peace talks between Israel and delegations representing the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states began in 1991. By early 1995 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Labor Party leader, had signed peace treaties with both the PLO and Jordan. However, in late 1995, Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli opposed to the peace process. In 1991 October - Syria participates in the Middle East peace conference in Madrid, and holds bilateral talks with Israel. However, these peace talk were not continued.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Jewish 80.1%, Muslim 14.6% (mostly Sunni Muslim), Christian 2.1%, other 3.2% (1996 est.)

13. Describe the form of government: Israel is a parliamentary republic with supreme authority vested in the legislature. The nation has no constitution, but a number of laws passed by the legislature regulate how the government operates. Israel's head of state, the president, serves mostly ceremonial functions and is elected by the legislature. The country's chief executive is the prime minister, elected by popular vote. The Israeli legislature, or Knesset, is a unicameral body elected under a system of proportional representation. Two major political alignments were dominant in the mid-1990s, the conservative Likud and the social-democratic Israel Labor Party.
Israel has both a civil and a religious court system. The highest civil court is a supreme court, which is supported by several levels of lower courts. Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities also have their own religious courts.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: Similar to Arab countries like Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Israel maintains laws and practices that blatantly discriminate against women in marriage, access to divorce, child custody, and inheritance, among other issues. These laws and practices relegated women to a subordinate status in the family and restricted their autonomy to make decisions about their lives. In fact, Israel, an amendment to the Equal Rights for Women Law was passed in March 2000. The amendment deals with, inter alia, equal social rights for women in all spheres of life: the right of women over their bodies, protection against violence and trafficking, and representation for women in the public sector. The equality proposed by this law extended to all spheres of life except family life. Issues of marriage and divorce continued to be exclusively within the jurisdiction of the religious courts, be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or Druze. These courts controlled women's lives and their right to administer their lives. For example, under these religious courts, women did not have equal access to divorce. According to the Israel Women's Network, thousands of Jewish women continued to be a gunot, "chained" women whose husbands refused to divorce them. Mevoi Satum (Impasse), an Israeli organization dedicated to helping a gunot, estimated that over 97 percent of men who deny their wives a divorce were physically abusive.

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1. Country : Jordan

2. Population: 5,307,470

3. Territory size : 89,556 sq km (34,578 sq mi).

4. Form of government: constitutional monarchy

5. Head of state: King Abdallah II the eldest son of King Hussein

6. Main economy: Underdeveloped industrially, poor in natural resources, and largely too arid for agriculture, Jordan depends heavily on foreign economic aid. In addition, after the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the economy was jolted by an influx of unemployed refugees and the loss of nearly half of Jordan's agricultural land. Tourism was an important source of income in the late 1980s, but the economy also became increasingly dependent on the overland transport of goods from the port of Al ‘Aqabah to Iraq and on remittances from Jordanian workers in Persian Gulf states. These latter two sources of revenue were hurt by Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the war and trade embargo against Iraq that followed. The currency is the Jordanian dinar

7. Capital City: Amman

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c : The area was held by the Turks from 1516 until World War I. The country became the British mandate of Transjordan in 1923.

9. Independence date: gained independence from British mandate in 1946

10. Describe its culture and people: Jordan's is almost entirely Arab and 72 percent urban. Amman is the largest city, and other important cities include Az Zarqā’, Irbid, and Al ‘Aqabah, the only seaport. Arabic is the official language. Education is free and compulsory from age 6 to 15.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· Jordan, which contains some of the earliest known settlements, was ruled in ancient times by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Romans. Arabs wrested Jordan from the Byzantine Empire between AD 633 and 636. From 1517 to 1918 Jordan was ruled by the Ottoman Empire.

· During World War I (1914-1918), British and Arab troops took the area. After the war the League Nations awarded the area as a mandate to Great Britain, which placed it under the rule of Abdullah Ibn Husein in 1921. The area was then known as Transjordan.

· in 1946 Britain relinquished the mandate and Abdullah was proclaimed king. The previous year, the country had joined the Arab League, an organization formed to coordinate Arab policy in international affairs and to curb Jewish national aspirations in Palestine. In 1948 league members attacked the newly formed state of Israel and occupied the West Bank, a section of Palestine abutting the Jordan River.

· In 1950 the country annexed the territory despite objections from other Arab League nations, and the country became known as Jordan. King Abdullah was assassinated in 1951. His son Talal I was deposed the next year in favor of Talal's son, Hussein I.

· 1952 11 August - Hussein proclaimed king after his father, Talal, is declared mentally unfit to rule.

· 1957 - British troops complete their withdrawal from Jordan.

· 1967 - Israel takes control of Jerusalem and West Bank during Six-Day War, major influx of refugees into Jordan.

· 1970 - Major clashes break out between government forces and Palestinian guerrillas resulting in thousands of casualties in civil war remembered as Black September.

· 1974 - King Hussein recognizes PLO as sole legitimate representative of Palestinian people.

· 1986 - Hussein severs political links with the PLO and orders its main offices to shut.

· 1988 - Hussein publicly backs the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israeli rule.

· 1989 - Rioting in several cities over price increases.

· 1989 - First general election since 1967, contested only by independent candidates because of the ban on political parties in 1963.

· 1990 - Jordan comes under severe economic and diplomatic strain as a result of the Gulf crisis following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

· 1994 - Jordan signs peace treaty with Israel, ending 46-year official state of war.

· 1998 - King Hussein treated for lymphatic cancer in United States.

· 1999 February - King Hussein returns home and is put on a life support machine. He is pronounced dead on 7 February. More than 50 heads of state attend his funeral.

· 1999 7 February - Hussein's, son Crown Prince Abdullah ibn al-Hussein is sworn in as king.

· 2001 March - King Abdullah and presidents Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt inaugurate a $300m (£207m) electricity line linking the grids of the three countries.

· 2002 September - Jordan and Israel agree on a plan to pipe water from the Red Sea to the shrinking Dead Sea. The project, costing $800m, is the two nations' biggest joint venture to date.

· 2002 October - Senior US diplomat Laurence Foley is gunned down outside his home in Amman, in the first assassination of a Western diplomat in Jordan. Scores of political activists are rounded up.

· 2003 June - First parliamentary elections under King Abdullah II. Independent candidates loyal to the king win two-thirds of the seats.

· 2003 August - Bomb attack on Jordan's embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad kills 11 people, injures more than 50.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Sunni Muslim 92%, Christian 6% (majority Greek Orthodox, but some Greek and Roman Catholics, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Protestant denominations), other 2% (several small Shi'a Muslim and Druze populations) (2001 est.)

13. Describe the form of government : Under the 1951 constitution (approved 1952), the Jordanian monarch is chief executive and head of state, sharing executive power with a prime minister and cabinet members who are responsible to parliament. The monarch may declare war; conclude peace; and convene, adjourn, and suspend the lower house of the legislature. Parliament consists of an elected 80-member lower house and a 40-member upper house appointed by the monarch. The Court of Cassation is the supreme court. Sharia (Islamic religious) courts rule on family and civil cases on request. Non-Muslim minorities and nomads may resort to courts of their own traditions.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: The extended family continued to be a viable form of household in the late 1980s. More families had begun to live in nuclear households, but Jordanians continued to rely on extended kin relations for a variety of purposes, which can be described as exchanges. Exchanges might include financial support; job information; social connections; access to strategic resources; marital partners; arrangements, protection, and support in the event of conflict; child care and domestic services; and emotional sustenance. In turn, an individual's social identity and loyalty continued to be oriented largely to the family. Because the family was central to social life, all children were expected to marry at the appropriate age, and eligible divorced or widowed persons were expected to remarry. Marriage conferred adult status on both men and women. The birth of children further enhanced this status, especially for women, who then felt more secure in their marital households. Polygamy was practiced in only a minority of cases and was socially frowned upon.

Marriage is considered a family affair rather than a personal choice. Because the sexes ordinarily did not mix much socially, young men and women had few acquaintances among the opposite sex, although among beduins a limited courtship was permitted. Parents traditionally arranged marriages for their children, finding a mate either through the family or their social contacts.

What is interesting, however, is that the number of women working outside the home increased in the 1980s. Women formed a little over 12 percent of the labor force in 1985. Many poor and lower-class women worked out of economic necessity, but a substantial number of working women came from financially secure families. Differences in attitude towards women's employment frequently were based on the conditions of work. In a study of attitudes toward women and work, Jordanian sociologist Mohammad Barhoum found that resistance was least to women working in traditionally female occupations such as teaching, nursing, and secretarial work. He believed the change in attitude resulted from increased educational opportunities for girls and their parents' realization that education was as important for girls as for boys, especially in the event of widowhood or divorce. The erosion of male wages, no longer adequate to support a family, had also been a prominent factor in legitimizing female employment. The impact of women's employment on relations within the family remained difficult to assess in 1989. Employment and contribution to family income accorded women a greater voice in family matters. The traditional division of labor between men and women within the family often remained relatively untouched when women worked. Women's work at home was often taken up by other women rather than shared between men and women. Women earning lower incomes relied on their extended network of female relatives to help with child care and housework, while upper and middle income women hired maids (usually foreigners from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, or Egypt) to tend to their homes and children.

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1. Country: Kuwait

2. Population: 2,111,561

3. Territory size: 3 million sq km (about 1,160,000 sq mi)

4. Form of government: nominal constitutional monarchy

5. Head of state: Sheikh Jabir Al Ahmad Al Jabir Al Sabah

6. Main economy: Kuwait is a small, rich, relatively open economy with proved crude oil reserves of 94 billion barrels - 10% of world reserves. Petroleum accounts for nearly half of GDP, 90% of export revenues, and 75% of government income. Kuwait's climate limits agricultural development. Consequently, with the exception of fish, it depends almost wholly on food imports. About 75% of potable water must be distilled or imported. Higher oil prices put the FY99/00 budget into a $2 billion surplus. The FY00/01 budget covers only nine months because of a change in the fiscal year. The budget for FY01/02 envisioned higher expenditures for salaries, construction, and other general categories. Kuwait continues its discussions with foreign oil companies to develop fields in the northern part of the countr

7. Capital City: Kuwait

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c: The country was a British protectorate from 1897 to 1961

9. Independence date: 19 June 1961 (from UK)

10. Describe its culture and people: The native people of Kuwait are Arabs, although many minority groups are present as workers. Islam is the predominant religion. The official language is Arabic, but English is widely spoken. Education is free.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· 1600s - Northeast portion of Arabian peninsula becomes part of the Turkish Ottoman empire.

· 1700s - Settlers arrive at the site of present-day Kuwait City from the interior of the Arabian peninsula. The settlement grows into a bustling trading hub by the early 1800s.

· 1756 - Kuwait comes under the control of the Al-Sabah family, predecessors of Kuwait's present rulers. A degree of semi-autonomy from Ottoman Turkey prevails.

· 1899 - Fearing direct rule from Turkey, Sheikh Mubarak "the Great" strikes a deal with Britain and Kuwait becomes a protectorate. Britain provides naval protection in return for Kuwait allowing London to control its foreign affairs.

· 1937 - Large oil reserves discovered by the US-British Kuwait Oil Company. Exploitation is delayed by World War II, but thereafter fuels the country's development into a modern commercial centre.

· 1951 - Major public-works programme begins; Kuwait's infrastructure is transformed, residents enjoy a high standard of living.

· 1961 June - Kuwait becomes independent with the end of the British protectorate; the sheikh becomes an emir. The country joins the Arab League. Iraq renews claims that Kuwait is part of its territory but backs down after British military intervention.

· 1963 - Elections held for National Assembly, under terms of newly-drafted constitution.

· 1976 - Emir suspends National Assembly, saying it is not acting in the country's interests.

· 1980 - Iran-Iraq war: Kuwait supports Iraq strategically and financially.

· 1981 - National Assembly recalled; dissolved again in 1986.

· 1985-86 - Domestic security concerns, particularly about Iran's perceived influence over the Shi'ite minority, prompt the deportations of thousands of expatriates, many of them Iranian.

· 1990 July - Iraq complains to OPEC, accusing Kuwait of stealing its oil from a field near the border. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatens military action.

· 1990 August - Iraq invades and then annexes Kuwait. The emir and cabinet flee to Saudi Arabia.

· 1991 January - Iraq fails to comply with a UN resolution ordering it to pull out. AUS-led and UN-backed bombing aerial campaign begins in Kuwait and Iraq. By late February allied forces reach Kuwait City. Iraqi forces torch oil wells as they pull out.

· 1991 March - Emir returns, imposes three-month period of martial law.

· 1992 - Under domestic and international pressure, Emir gives green light to National Assembly elections. Opposition forces perform well in the vote.

· 1993 - UN demarcates new Kuwait-Iraq border, awarding a port and a number of oil wells to Kuwait. US troops despatched to Kuwait following Iraqi border incursions.

· 1994 - Iraq officially recognises Kuwait's independence and the UN-demarcated borders following UN pressure and Russian mediation.

· 1999 - Emir suspends National Assembly after bitter feud between MPs and cabinet about misprints in state-published edition of the Koran. Government supporters suffer shock setback in resulting elections; liberals and Islamists predominate in the new assembly.

· 2001 March - Kuwaiti court commutes to life imprisonment a death sentence handed down in 2000 to the country's pro-Iraqi puppet ruler during the 1990-91 invasion.

· 2002 March - Summit in Beirut: Kuwait and Iraq move towards normalising relations; Iraq promises not to stage a repeat of its 1990 invasion.

· 2002 October - Two Kuwaiti gunmen kill US marine in what authorities say is "terrorist incident".

· 2003 March - Tens of thousands of soldiers converge on the Kuwait-Iraq border for a US-led military campaign to disarm and oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

· 2003 July - Islamist and pro-government candidates fare well in parliamentary elections. There are major losses for liberal candidates. The emir of Kuwait appoints Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah prime minister, separating the post from the role of heir to the throne for the first time since independence.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Muslim 85% (Sunni 70%, Shi'a 30%), Christian, Hindu, Parsi, and other 15%

13. Describe the form of government: Kuwait's government is headed by a hereditary emir (prince), whose power is exercised through a prime minister and council of ministers. Legislative power is officially held by an assembly of 50 members elected to four-year terms by literate native-born men.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: Family system are similar to those in Bahrain, Algeria and Saudi Arabia. Women in Kuwait like many Middle Eastern women are suffering from the patriarchal system. In fact on oe the most are still issues in Kuwait today is women's suffrage. In May 1999, the Amir issued a decree granting women the right to vote and hold elected office, but the measure was struck down by the National Assembly in November 1999. In the 1995 Women's Conference in Beijing. Kuwaiti women have on several occasions protested against their political ban; they have routinely marched on the National Assembly holding signs and banners demanding political rights; on other occasions, they have marched into voter registration centers in police stations demanding to receive their political rights. However in the social arena women in Kuwait have many of the same rights as men. They are free to drive and dress as they please. It is common to see women dressed in western attire alongside women wearing traditional Islamic dress. Women are active in all aspects of Kuwaiti society, and are free to go out and travel on their own, as they please. Moreover, they have equal opportunity in the education Female education began in 1937; its benefits are clearly evident with the emergence of a variety of professional women in the work force today. By the early 1980's for example, over 4,000 Kuwaiti women held university degrees, compared to only 38 in 1965. Over 67% of Kuwait University graduates are women. Presently:

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1. Country: Lebanon

2. Population: 3,677,780

3. Territory size: Its area is 10,452 sq km (4036 sq mi).

4. Form of government: Republic

5. Head of state: President Emile Geamil Lahoud

6. Main economy: Historically, Lebanon has served as a financial center, with an economy dominated by banking, international commerce, and tourism. However, recent civil strife and war with Israel have destroyed much of the business infrastructure. Oil refining is Lebanon's major heavy industry. Agriculture is also important, and a variety of crops are grown, mostly along the coastal plain and in the Bekáa Valley. The unit of currency is the Lebanese pound (1571 Lebanese pounds equal U.S.$1; 1996).

7. Capital City: Beirut

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c : In 1940 - Lebanon comes under the control of the Vichy French government

9. Independence date: 22 November 1943 (from League of Nations mandate under French administration)

10. Describe its culture and people: Most of the people are of Semitic descent. Other groups include Armenians and Palestinian Arabs. Arabic is the official language. Primary education is free and compulsory for five years.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· 1920 1 September - After the League of Nations grants the mandate for Lebanon and Syria to France, the State of Greater Lebanon is proclaimed. It includes the former autonomous province of Mount Lebanon, plus the provinces of north Lebanon, south Lebanon and the Biqa, historically part of Syria.

· 1926 23 May - The Lebanese Representative Council approves a Constitution and the Lebanese Republic is declared.

· 1940 - Lebanon comes under the control of the Vichy French government.

· 1941 - After Lebanon is occupied by Free French and British troops in June

· 1941, independence is declared on 26 November.

· 1943 March - The foundations of the state are set out in an unwritten National Covenant which states that Lebanon is an independent Arab country with ties to the West but which cooperates with other Arab states while remaining neutral. The 1932 census which had shown that Christians were 54% of the population is used as the basis for the distribution of seats in the Chamber of Deputies (later to be called the National Assembly) on a ratio of 6 to 5 (later extended to other public offices). The President is to be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies a Shi'i Muslim.

· 1943 December - France agrees to the transfer of power to the Lebanese government with effect from 1 January 1944.

· 1957 - President Kamil Sham'un accepts the Eisenhower Doctrine, announced in January, which offers US economic and military aid to Middle Eastern countries to counteract Soviet influence in the region.

· 1958 14 July - Faced with increasing opposition which develops into a civil war, President Sham'un asks the United States to send troops to preserve Lebanon's independence.

· 1958 15 July - The United States, mindful of Iraq's overthrow of its monarchy, sends marines to re-establish the government's authority.

· 1967 June - Lebanon plays no active role in the Arab-Israeli war but is to be affected by its aftermath when Palestinians use Lebanon as a base for activities against Israel.

· 1968 28 December - In retaliation for an attack by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on an Israeli plane in Athens, Israel raids Beirut airport, destroying 13 civilian planes.

· 1969 November - The Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Emile Bustani, and

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasir Arafat sign an agreement in Cairo which aims to control Palestinian guerrilla activities in Lebanon.

· 1973 10 April - Israeli commandos raid Beirut and kill three Palestinian leaders, close associates of Arafat. The Lebanese government resigns the next day.

· 1975 13 April - Phalangist gunmen ambush a bus in the Ayn-al-Rummanah district of Beirut, killing 27 of its mainly Palestinian passengers. The Phalangists claim that guerrillas had previously attacked a church in the same district. (These clashes are regarded as the start of the civil war).

· 1976 June - Syrian troops enter Lebanon to restore peace but also to curb the Palestinians.

· 1976 October - Following Arab summit meetings in Riyad and Cairo, a cease-fire is arranged and a predominantly Syrian Arab Deterrent Force (ADF) is established to maintain it.

· 1978 14/15 March - In reprisal for a Palestinian attack into its territory, Israel launches a major invasion of Lebanon, occupying land as far north as the Litani River.

· 1978 19 March - The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passes Resolution 425, which calls on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory and establishes the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to confirm the Israeli withdrawal, restore peace and help the Lebanese government re-establish its authority in the area.

· 1978 - By 13 June Israel hands over territory in southern Lebanon not to UNIFIL but to its proxy mainly Christian Lebanese militia under Maj Sa'd Haddad.

· 1982 6 June - Following the attempted assassination of Shlomo Argov, Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Israel launches a full-scale invasion of Lebanon, "Operation Peace for Galilee".

· 1982 14 September - President-elect, Bashir al-Jumayyil, is assassinated. The following day, Israeli forces occupy West Beirut, and from 16 to 18 September, the Phalangist militia kill Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut.

· 1982 21 September - Bashir's elder brother, Amin al-Jumayyil, is elected president.

· 1982 24 September - The first contingent of a mainly US, French and Italian peacekeeping force, requested by Lebanon, arrives in Beirut.

· 1983 17 May - Israel and Lebanon sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal, ending hostilities and establishing a security region in southern Lebanon.

· 1983 23 October - 241 US marines and 56 French paratroopers are killed in two bomb explosions in Beirut, responsibility for which is claimed by two militant Shi'i groups. 1985 - By 6 June most Israeli troops withdraw but some remain to support the mainly Christian South Lebanon Army (SLA) led by Maj-Gen Antoine Lahd which operates in a "security zone" in southern Lebanon.

· 1985 16 June - A TWA plane lands in Beirut after having been hijacked on a flight from Athens to Rome by two alleged members of Hezbollah demanding the release of Shi'is in Israeli jails. The crisis is resolved with the help of Syrian mediation.

· 1987 21 May - Lebanon abrogates the 1969 Cairo agreement with the PLO as well as officially cancelling the 17 May 1983 agreement with Israel.

· 1987 1 June - After Prime Minister Rashid Karami is killed when a bomb explodes in his helicopter, Salim al-Huss becomes acting prime minister.

· 1988 22 September - When no candidate is elected to succeed him, outgoing President Amin al-Jumayyil appoints a six-member interim military government, composed of three Christians and three Muslims, though the latter refuse to serve. Lebanon now has two governments - one mainly Muslim in West Beirut, headed by Al-Huss, the other, Christian, in East Beirut, led by the Maronite Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Gen Michel Awn.

· 1989 14 March - Awn declares a "war of liberation " against the Syrian presence in Lebanon.

· 1989 28 July - Shaykh Abd-al-Karim Ubayd, Hezbollah leader in Jibshit, is abducted by Israeli forces.

· 1989 22 October - The National Assembly, meeting in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, endorses a Charter of National Reconciliation, which reduces the authority of the president by transferring executive power to the cabinet. The National Assembly now has an equal number of Christian and Muslim members instead of the previous six to five ratio.

· 1989 November - President-elect Rene Mu'awwad is assassinated on 22 November and succeeded by Ilyas al-Hirawi on 24 November. The following day, Salim al-Huss becomes Prime Minister and Gen Emile Lahhud replaces Awn as Commander-in-Chief of the Army on 28 November.

· 1990 13 October - The Syrian airforce attacks the Presidential Palace at B'abda and Awn takes refuge in the French embassy. This date is regarded as the end of the civil war.

· 1990 24 December - Umar Karami heads a government of national reconciliation.

· 1991 - The National Assembly orders the dissolution of all militias by 30 April but Hezbollah is allowed to remain active and the South Lebanon Army (SLA) refuses to disband.

· 1991 22 May - A Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination is signed in Damascus by Lebanon and Syria and a Higher Council, co-chaired by their two presidents, is established.

· 1991 1 July - The Lebanese army defeats the PLO in Sidon so that it now confronts the Israelis and the SLA in Jazzin, north of the so-called "security zone".

· 1991 26 August - The National Assembly grants an amnesty for all crimes committed during the civil war, 1975-1990. Awn receives a presidential pardon and is allowed to leave for France.

· 1991 30 October - Lebanon participates in the Middle East Peace Conference launched in Madrid.

· 1992 16 February - Shaykh Abbas al-Musawi, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, is killed when Israeli helicopter gunships attack his motorcade on a road south-east of SidonBy 17 June all Western hostages held by Shi'i groups have been released.

· 1992 20 October - After elections in August and September (the first since 1972), Nabih Birri, Secretary-General of the Shi'i Amal organization, becomes speaker of the National Assembly.

· 1992 31 October - Rafiq al-Hariri, a rich businessman, born in Sidon but with Saudi Arabian nationality, becomes prime minister, heading a cabinet of technocrats.

· 1993 25 July - Israel attempts to end the threat from Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in southern Lebanon by launching "Operation Accountability", the heaviest attack since 1982.

· 1994 21 May - Mustafa Dib al-Dirani, head of the Believers' Resistance, a breakaway group from the Shi'i Amal organization, is abducted by Israeli commandos from his house in eastern Lebanon.

· 1996 11 April - The start of "Operation Grapes of Wrath" in which the Israelis bomb Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon, the southern district of Beirut and the Biqa.

· 1996 18 April - An Israeli attack on a UN base at Qana results in the death of over 100 Lebanese refugees sheltering there.

· 1996 26 April - The United States negotiates a truce and an "understanding" under which Hezbollah and Palestinian guerrillas agree not to attack civilians in northern Israel, and which recognizes Israel's right to self-defence but also Hezbollah's right to resist the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Lebanon and Syria do not sign the "understanding" but the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group (ILMG), with representatives from the United States, France, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, is established to monitor the truce.

· 1998 1 April - Israel's inner cabinet votes to accept United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 425 of 1978 if Lebanon guarantees the security of Israel's northern border. Both Lebanon and Syria reject this condition.

· 1998 24 November - Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Emile Lahhud, is sworn in as president, succeeding Ilyas al-Hirawi.

· 1998 4 December - Salim al-Huss becomes prime minister heading a cabinet which includes no militia leaders and only two ministers from the previous administration.

· 1999 3 June - South Lebanon Army (SLA) completes its withdrawal from the Jazzin salient (north of the "security zone") occupied since 1985.

· 2000 18 April - Israel releases 13 Lebanese prisoners held without trial for more than 10 years but extends the detention of Shaykh Abd-al-Karim Ubayd and Mustafa Dib al-Dirani.

· 2000 24 May - After the collapse of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and the rapid advance of Hezbollah forces, Israel withdraws its troops from southern Lebanon, more than six weeks before its stated deadline of 7 July.

· 2000 25 May - 25 May declared an annual public holiday, called "Resistance and Liberation Day".

· 2000 October - Rafiq al-Hariri takes office as prime minister for a second time.

· 2001 March - Lebanon begins pumping water from a tributary of the River Jordan to supply a southern border village despite opposition from Israel.

· 2003 April - Prime Minister Hariri resigns to allow the formation of a new cabinet. A day later, MPs vote to keep him as prime minister.

· 2003 August - Car bomb in Beirut kills a member of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group. Hezbollah and a government minister blame Israel for the blast.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Muslim 70% (including Shi'a, Sunni, Druze, Isma'ilite, Alawite or Nusayri), Christian 30% (including Orthodox Christian, Catholic, Protestant), Jewish NEGL%

13. Describe the form of government: The government is headed by a Maronite Christian president, a Sunni Muslim prime minister, and a Shiite speaker of the unicameral National Assembly. The constitution mandates that the holders of these offices be of these specific religions. Similarly, the 128 assembly seats are divided equally between Christians and Muslims.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: The primacy of the family manifests itself in all phases of Lebanese life including political, financial, and personal relationships. In the political sphere, families compete with each other for power and prestige, and kinsmen combine forces to support family members in their quest for leadership. In business, employers give preference to hiring relatives, and brothers and cousins often consolidate their resources in operating a family enterprise. Wealthy family members are expected to share with less prosperous relatives, a responsibility that commonly falls to expatriate and urban relatives who help support their village kin. In the personal sphere, the family has an equally pervasive role. To a great extent, family status determines an individual's access to education and chances of achieving prominence and wealth. The family also seeks to ensure an individual's conformity with accepted standards of behavior so that family honor will be maintained. An individual's ambitions are molded by the family in accordance with the long-term interests of the group as a whole. Just as the family gives protection, support, and opportunity to its members, the individual member offers loyalty and service to the family. The traditional form of the family is the three-generation patrilineal extended family, consisting of a man, his wife or wives, their unmarried children of both sexes, and their married sons, together with the sons' wives and children. Some of these groups live under one roof as a single household, which occurred in earlier generations, but most do not.

The family in Lebanon, as elsewhere in the region, assigns different roles to family members on the basis of gender. The superior status of men in society and within the narrow confines of the nuclear family transcends the barriers of sect or ethnicity. Lebanese family structure is patriarchal. The centrality of the father figure stems from the role of the family as an economic unit, in which the father is the property owner and producer on whom the rest of the family depend. This notion prevails even in rural regions of Lebanon where women participate in peasant work. Although the inferior status of women is undoubtedly legitimized by various religious texts, the oppression of women in Arab society preceded the advent of Islam. The roles of women have traditionally been restricted to those of mother and homemaker. However, since the 1970s Arab societies have allowed women to play a more active role socially and in the work force, basically as a result of the manpower shortage caused by heavy migration of men to Persian Gulf countries. In Lebanon the percentage of women in the labor force has increased, although the Islamic religious revival that swept Lebanon in the 1980s, reasserted traditional cultural values. As a consequence, veils and abas (cloaks) have become more common among Muslim women. Among Christians, the war enabled women to assume more independent roles because of the absence of male family members involved in the fighting. Notwithstanding the persistence of traditional attitudes regarding the role of women, Lebanese women enjoy equal civil rights and attend institutions of higher education in large numbers (for example, women constituted 41 percent of the student body at the American University of Beirut in 1983). Although women have their own organizations, most exist as subordinate branches of the political parties.

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1. Country: Libya

2. Population: 5,368,585 note: includes 662,669 non-nationals, of which an estimated 500,000 or more are Africans living in Libya

3. Territory size: 1,757,000 sq km (678,400 sq mi).

4. Form of government: Jamahiriya (a state of the masses) in theory, governed by the populace through local councils; in fact, a military dictatorship

5. Head of state: Colonel Muammar Gaddafi

6. Main economy: Libya was traditionally an agricultural country, but the discovery of petroleum in the late 1950s profoundly changed the economy. Petroleum accounts for almost all of Libya's export trade. Major manufacturing facilities developed in support of the petroleum industry. Farms continue to cultivate livestock, grains, and fruits in small areas of Libya, but the country must import the bulk of its food. The unit of currency is the Libyan dinar (0.36 dinar equals U.S.$1; 1996).

7. Capital City: Tripoli

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c In 1911-12 - Italy conquers Libya.

9. Independence date: 24 December 1951 (from Italy)

10. Describe its culture and people: mostly of Berber and Arab origin. More than two-thirds of the people live in the coastal areas, and 86 percent are urban. Islam is the state religion. The official language is Arabic. Education is free and compulsory, and 76 percent of adults can read.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· 7th century BC - Phoenicians settle in Tripolitania in western Libya.

· 6th century BC - Carthage conquers Tripolitania.

· 4th century BC - Greeks colonise Cyrenaica in the east of the country, which they call Libya.

· 74 BC - Romans conquer Libya.

· 6th century AD - Libya becomes part of the Byzantine empire.

· 643 - Arabs under Amr Ibn al-As conquer Libya and spread Islam.

· 16th century - Libya becomes part of the Ottoman Empire, which joins the three provinces of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan into one regency in Tripoli.

· 1911-12 - Italy conquers Libya.

· 1920s - Libyan resistance to Italian rule begins under the leadership of the Sanusi dynasty and Umar al-Mukhtar.

· 1942 - Allies oust Italians from Libya, which is then divided between the French, who administer Fezzan, and the British, who control Cyrenaica and Tripolitania.

· 1951 - Libya becomes independent under King Idris al-Sanusi.

· 1956 - Libya grants two American oil companies a concession of some 14 million acres.

· 1961 - King Idris opens a 104-mile pipeline, which links important oil fields in the interior to the Mediterranean Sea and makes it possible to export Libyan oil for the first time.

· 1970 - Libya orders the closure of a British airbase in Tobruk and the giant US Wheelus air force base in Tripoli; property belonging to Italian settlers nationalised.

· 1971 - National referendum approves proposed Federation of Arab Republics (FAR) comprising Libya, Egypt and Syria. However, the FAR never takes off.

· 1973 - Col Gaddafi declares a "cultural revolution", which includes the formation of "people's committees" in schools, hospitals, universities, workplaces and administrative districts; Libyan forces occupy Aozou Strip in northern Chad.

· 1974 - Libya and Tunisia agree on a union state - the "Islamic Arab Republic" - but this proves to be stillborn.

· 1977 - Col Gaddafi declares a "people's revolution", changing the country's official name from the Libyan Arab Republic to the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah and setting up "revolutionary committees" - heralding the start of institutionalised chaos, economic decline and general arbitrariness.

· 1980 - Libya and Syria agree on a merger, but this too fails to materialise; Libyan troops start intervening on a large scale in civil war in northern Chad.

· 1981 - US shoots down two Libyan aircraft which challenged its warplanes over the Gulf of Sirte, claimed by Libya as its territorial water.

· 1984 - UK breaks off diplomatic relations with Libya after a British policewoman is shot dead outside the Libyan People's Bureau, or embassy, in London, while anti-Gaddafi protests were taking place.

· 1986 - US bombs Libyan military facilities, residential areas of Tripoli and Benghazi, killing 101 people, and Gaddafi's house, killing his adopted daughter. USsays raids were in response to alleged Libyan involvement in bombing of Berlin discotheque frequented by US military personnel.

· 1988 - Gaddafi orders the release of some political prisoners and embarks on limited economic liberalisation.

· 1989 - Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia form the Arab Maghreb Union.

· 1992 - UN imposes sanctions on Libya in an effort to force it to hand over for trial two of its citizens suspected of involvement in the blowing up of a PanAm airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988.

· 1994 - Libya returns the Aozou Strip to Chad.

· 1995 - Gaddafi expels some 30,000 Palestinians in protest at the Oslo accords between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel.

· 1999 - Lockerbie suspects handed over for trial in the Netherlands under Scottish law; UN sanctions suspended; diplomatic relations with UK restored.

· 2000 September - Dozens of African immigrants are killed by Libyan mobs in the west of Libya who were said to be angry at the large number of African labourers coming into the country.

· 2001 31 January - Special Scottish court in the Netherlands finds one of the two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, guilty and sentences him to life imprisonment. Megrahi's co-accused, Al-Amin Khalifa Fahimah, was found not guilty and freed to return home.

· 2001 May - Libyan troops help to quell a coup attempt against President Ange-Felix Patasse of the Central African Republic.

· 2002 January - Libya and the US say they have held talks to mend relations after years of hostility over what the Americans termed Libya's sponsorship of terrorism.

· 2002 14 March - The Libyan man found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, loses his appeal against the conviction and begins a life sentence of at least 20 years.

· 2003 December - Libya announces that it will abandon its programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Sunni Muslim 97%

13. Describe the form of government: Under the 1977 constitution, power is held by the head of state, or revolutionary leader; by the five members of the General Secretariat of the General People's Congress, a national legislature; and by the 16 members of the General People's Committee.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: Libyans reckon kinship patrilineally, and the household is based on blood ties between men. A typical household consists of a man, his wife, his single and married sons with their wives and children, his unmarried daughters, and perhaps other relatives, such as a widowed or divorced mother or sister. At the death of the father, each son ideally establishes his own household to begin the cycle again. Because of the centrality of family life, it is assumed that all persons will marry when they reach an appropriate age. Adult status is customarily bestowed only on married men and, frequently, only on fathers. In traditional North African society, family patriarchs ruled as absolute masters over their extended families, and in Libya the institution seems to have survived somewhat more tenaciously than elsewhere in the area. Despite the changes in urban and rural society brought about by the 1969 revolution, the revolutionary government has repeatedly stated that the family is the core of society.

Marriage is more a family than a personal affair and a civil contract rather than a religious act. Because the sexes generally were unable to mix socially, young men and women enjoyed few acquaintances among the opposite sex. Parents arranged marriages for their children, finding a mate either through their own social contacts or through a professional matchmaker. It is the groom's family provides a dowry, which can amount to the equivalent of US$10,000 in large cities. Accumulation of the requisite dowry may be one reason that males tend to be several years older than females at the time of marriage. Islamic law gives the husband far greater discretion and far greater leeway with respect to marriage than it gives the wife. For example, the husband may take up to four wives at one time, provided that he can treat them equally; a woman, however, can have only one husband at a time. Despite the legality of polygyny, only 3 percent of marriages in the 1980s were polygynous, the same as a decade earlier. A man can divorce his wife simply by repeating "I divorce thee" three times before witnesses; a woman can initiate divorce proceedings only with great difficulty. Any children of the union belong to the husband's family and remain with him after the divorce.

The revolutionary government has enacted several statutes expanding women's rights and restricting somewhat those of men in matters of divorce. Women received increased rights to seek divorce or separation by either customary or legal means in cases of abandonment or mistreatment. Other laws prohibit a man from taking a second spouse without first obtaining the approval of his first wife and forbid a divorced man from marrying an alien woman, even an Arab from another country. A companion law prohibits men in the employ of the state from marrying non-Arab women. Yet the child born abroad of a Libyan father is eligible for Libyan citizenship irrespective of the mother's nationality, while a child born to a Libyan mother would not be accorded automatic Libyan citizenship. In a society as tradition-bound as Libya's, the effects of these new laws were problematic. Despite the backing of the regime and Qadhafi's calls for still further modifications in favor of women, the society reportedly was not yet ready to acknowledge the new rights, and women were still hesitant in claiming them.

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1. Country: Mauritania

2. Population: 2,828,858

3. Territory size: The total area is 1,031,000 sq km (398,000 sq mi).

4. Form of government: Republic

5. Head of state: Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya

6. Main economy: Animal raising is the most important economic activity. Mauritania has a large saltwater fishing potential, and fishing is increasing in importance. Production of iron ore is also significant. Nonetheless, the country depends heavily on foreign aid. The unit of currency is the ouguiya (137 ouguiyas equal U.S.$1; 1996).

7. Capital City: Nouakchott

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c: In 1904 - France establishes Mauritania as a colonial territory

9. Independence date: 28 November 1960 (from France)

10. Describe its culture and people: The population is mostly Moors of mixed Arab and Berber ancestry, many of them nomadic. About a third of the people are black African farmers settled in the Sénégal Valley. The overwhelming majority of the population lives in the southern quarter of the country. More than 99 percent of the people are followers of Islam, the state religion. Arabic is the official language, and Poular, Wolof, and Soninke are recognized as national languages. The government of Mauritania provides free primary education, and attendance at primary schools is 78 percent of eligible children.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· 3rd-7th centuries AD - Berber and Arab migrants displace the original inhabitants of present-day Mauritania.

· 9-10th centuries - Empire of Ghana has its capital in present-day south-west Mauritania.

· 1076 - Berber Almoravid warriors defeat the Empire of Ghana.

· 1500s - European mariners and traders establish settlements.

· 1644-74 - Mauritanian Thirty-Year War: Berbers unsuccessful in repelling Arab warriors.

· 1850s-60s - French forces gain control of southern Mauritania. In 1898 France wins the allegiance of Moors in the region.

· 1904 - France establishes Mauritania as a colonial territory.

· 1920 - Mauritania becomes part of French West Africa, and is administered from Senegal.

· 1946 - Becomes a French overseas territory.

· 1957 - Nouakchott established as the capital.

· 1958 - Mauritania becomes self-governing.

· 1960 28 November - Mauritania becomes independent.

· 1960 - Mauritania makes territorial claims to neighbouring Spanish Sahara.

· 1973 - Mauritania joins the Arab League.

· 1976 - Mauritania and Morocco divide up Spanish Sahara, now known as Western Sahara, after Spain pulls out. Guerrillas of the Polisario front, aiming to establish an independent state in the territory, fight the forces of both countries.

· 1978 - First post-independence president, Moktar Daddah, is deposed in a military coup. The coup is prompted partly by the struggle against Polisario guerrillas and resulting financial strains.

· 1979 - Mauritania signs a peace agreement with the Polisario front and renounces its claim to Western Sahara. Morocco annexes Mauritania's former share of the territory.

· 1981 - Attempted coup; Moroccan involvement is alleged and Mauritania breaks ties with the country.

· 1984 - Coup brings Colonel Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya to power.

· 1989 - Race riots erupt in Mauritania and Senegal after a border dispute. Tens of thousands of black Mauritanians are driven out of the country into Senegal. Others become the targets of attacks and land seizures. Hundreds of people are killed.

· 1992 - Taya elected president.

· 1993 - US ends development aid over Mauritania's treatment of its black population and its support for Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.

· 1997 - President Taya re-elected in a poll boycotted by the main opposition parties.

· 2001 September - Morocco's King Mohammed vists - a turning point in the often-strained relations between the two countries.

· 2002 January - Opposition party Action for Change, which campaigns for greater rights for blacks and descendants of slaves, is banned.

· 2002 June - Country granted $1.1bn (£740m) in debt relief.

· 2003 June - Attempted coup: Troops loyal to President Maaouiya Ould Taya regain control of the capital after heavy fighting with rebel soldiers.

· 2003 October - First post-independence president, Moktar Ould Daddah, dies in Paris.

· 2003 November - President Taya re-elected with 67% of vote in first round of elections. Opposition alleges polling fraud.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Muslim 100%

13. Describe the form of government: The 1991 constitution declares Mauritania an “Islamic, African, and Arab republic.” The constitution provides for an executive president elected to a six-year term and for a bicameral legislature, consisting of a National Assembly and a Senate.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: During the period of civilian government, women were most successful in fulfilling their political demands through the party. Although the constitution guaranteed equality before the law and full rights of political participation, traditional practices effectively denied women any major role in political life. To elicit the support of women, the PPM created the National Union of Mauritanian Women in 1961. At first oriented only toward such typically feminine issues as health, nutrition, and education, by 1964 it had become the women's political arm of the PPM and was renamed the National Women's Movement (Mouvement National Féminin). The organization of the women's movement paralleled that of the PPM, with local committees, sections, and federations, and was headed by an elected bureau. At each level in the hierarchy, an official of the women's organization participated as an ex officio member of the respective PPM bureau. Although most women were far from achieving political equality with men, they were able to bring about change in response to some of their demands. Over the years, several political functions helped to improve the lot of women. The PPM party congress at Kaédi in 1964 condemned abuses of divorce and doweries. The congress at `Ayoûn el `Atroûs in 1966 made provisions for the support of dependent children who remained with their mothers following a divorce and created the Superior Council for Women (Conseil Supérieur des Femmes), which operated the National Women's Movement. At the Nouakchott party congress in 1968, women's issues received significant attention. The 300 participants, including 11 women, called for the obligatory registration of marriages and divorces to protect women, the enactment of laws to discourage polygyny, limits on the size of dowries, and a code to protect women's rights. In the 1971 elections, two women were elected to the previously all-male National Assembly, and one, Aissatou Kane, was named minister of health and social affairs, becoming the first woman to serve in the government. She remained in office until the 1978 coup.

The pace of change improved under the military government as more women enrolled in schools and joined the labor force. In May 1987, in what was a remarkable step for Mauritania, President Taya named three women to cabinet-level posts to "correct countless managerial mistakes committed in the past." Khadijatou Bint Ahmed of Boutilimit was appointed minister of mines and industries. Lalla Mariam Bint Moulaye was appointed associate director of the presidential cabinet, and N'Deye Tabar Fall became general secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.

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1. Country: Morocco

2. Population: 31,167,783

3. Territory size: 458,730 sq km

4. Form of government: constitutional monarchy

5. Head of state : King Mohammed VI ibn al-Hasan

6. Main economy: Morocco's economy is primarily agricultural; farming employs 45 percent of the workforce. Cereals, field crops, sugar, and livestock are the major products. Forestry, such as cork production, and fishing are also important. The major mining product is phosphate rock. Manufacturing is mostly small-scale, with major products including carpets, cement, and phosphoric acid. Tourism is an important industry. Morocco's unit of currency is the dirham

7. Capital City: Rabat

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c: May 21, 1910. French forces advancing through Morocco occupy Fez.

9. Independence date: 2 March 1956 (from France)

10. Describe its culture and people: The people are primarily Berbers (about 75 percent), Arabs, black Africans, French Europeans, and indigenous Jews. Most inhabitants speak Arabic; Berber, French, and Spanish are also spoken. Schooling is compulsory to age 13, and the literacy rate is 44 percent.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· 7th century AD - Arab invasion; Idris founds the first major Muslim dynasty.

· 10-17th centuries - A succession of dynasties and religious movements, including the Almoravid movement which at its peak controlled all of Morocco and parts of present-day Algeria and Spain.

· 1860 - Dispute over Spain's Ceuta enclave; Spain declares war, wins a further enclave and an enlarged Ceuta in the settlement.

· 1884 - Spain creates a protectorate in coastal areas of Morocco.

· 1904 - France and Spain agree on respective zones of influence in the country.

· 1906 - Algeciras Conference in Spain; France and Spain get the go-ahead to police Moroccan ports and collect customs fees.

· 1912 - Morocco becomes a French protectorate under the Treaty of Fez, administered by a French Resident-General. Spain continues to operate its coastal protectorate. The sultan has a largely figurehead role.

· 1921-6 - Tribal rebellion in Rif mountains, eventually suppressed by French and Spanish troops.

· 1943 - Istiqlal - Party of Independence - founded to press for independence.

· 1956 March - End of French protectorate after a period of unrest and strong nationalist sentiment. Spain keeps its two coastal enclaves. Sultan Mohammed becomes king in 1957.

· 1961 - Death of King Mohammed; King Hassan II comes to power.

· 1963 - First general elections.

· 1965 - Amid growing social unrest King Hassan declares a state of emergency and suspends parliament.

· 1971 - Failed attempt to depose king and establish republic.

· 1973 - Polisario movement formed, aims to establish an independent state in Spanish Sahara, a territory south of Morocco controlled by Spain. The group has Algerian support.

· 1975 6 November - The Green March: King Hassan orders 350,000 civilian volunteers to cross into Spanish Sahara.

· 1975 December - Spain agrees to withdraw from Spanish Sahara (soon to become Western Sahara) and to transfer it to joint Moroccan-Mauritanian control. Amid objections and threats of military intervention from Algeria, Moroccan forces enter and occupy the territory.

· 1976 - Moroccan and Algerian troops clash in Western Sahara. Algeria announces the formation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and forms a government-in-exile. Morocco and Mauritania divide-up Western Sahara.

· 1976 onwards - Fighting between Moroccan military and Polisario forces; the war is a considerable financial drain on Morocco.

· 1983 - Summit meeting between King Hassan and Algerian president prompts thaw in relations.

· 1983 - King cancels planned elections amid political unrest and economic crisis.

· 1984 - Morocco leaves the Organisation of African Unity in protest at the SADR's admission to the body. Polisario claims to have killed more than 5,000 Moroccan soldiers in offensives between 1982-5.

· 1988 - Resumption of full diplomatic relations with Algeria.

· 1991 - UN-monitored ceasefire begins in Western Sahara, but the territory's status remains undecided and numerous ceasefire violations are reported. The following decade sees much wrangling over a proposed referendum on the future of the territory but the deadlock is not broken.

· 1998 - Morocco's first opposition-led government comes to power.

· 1999 - King Hassan II succeeded by his son, Mohammed VI.

· 2001 November - King Mohammed starts a controversial tour of Western Sahara, the first by a Moroccan monarch for a decade.

· 2002 July - Morocco and Spain agree to US-brokered resolution over the disputed island of Perejil. Spanish troops had taken the normally-uninhabited island after Moroccan soldiers landed on it and set up tents and a flag.

· 2002 December - Morocco and Spain hold their first talks since their conflict over the disputed island of Perejil in July, but fail to restore full diplomatic relations.

· 2003 February - A Casablanca court jails three Saudi members of al-Qaeda for 10 years after they were accused of plotting to attack US and British warships in the Straits of Gibraltar in 2002.

· 2003 February, March - Thousands march through Rabat and Casablanca to demonstrate against US plans to attack Iraq.

· 2003 May - Forty one people are killed and about 100 injured in a series of suicide bomb attacks in the business capital Casablanca.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Muslim 98.7%, Christian 1.1%, Jewish 0.2%

13. Describe the form of government: Morocco is a hereditary monarchy, governed under a constitution. The king is the head of state. There is a unicameral legislature, most of whose members are chosen by direct universal suffrage. Morocco has a multiparty political system. The country's 35 provinces are administered by governors who are appointed by the king.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: Although family system is patriarchal in nature and it is the father who makes most of the decisions, women's situation has marked significant improvements since Mohammed VI became King in July 1999. For instance in March 2000, for the first time in the country's history, he appointed a female Royal Counselor. In August 2000, the King also appointed a woman to head the National Office of Oil Research and Exploration in September 2000, he confirmed the first-ever female ministerial appointment. In October 2000, the King appointed the first woman to head the National Office of Tourism. In May 2002, The Moroccan Parliament approved a proposal, backed by the King, that sets aside 30 seats for the election of women in the national elections of September 2002, as Mr. Mohamed Al Achaari, minister of culture  puts it : "the King thinks it's only fair to have women be largely represented in parliament since they constitute 50 per cent of the whole Moroccan population, and they should  therefore  be represented accordingly. Moreover, he suggested that that their should be equality between men and women aby setting the minimum age for marriage at 18 years for both of them, in accordance with certain provisions of the Malikite rite. He also suggest that women should have a right to file for divorce if the husband fails to observe any of the conditions in the marriage contract, or if he harms his wife through lack of financial support, abstinence, violence, or any other wrongful deed. These reforms are indications of the King’s attempt to eliminate discrimination against women in Morocco.

15. What are the sources for your ideas about this country?

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1. Country: Oman

2. Population: 2,713,462 note: includes 527,078 non-nationals

3. Territory size: 309,500 sq km (119,500 sq mi).

4. Form of government: monarchy

5. Head of state: Sayyid Qaboos ibn Said Al Bu Sa`idi

6. Main economy: The fastest growing sector of Oman’s economy is based on oil: Oil production accounts for almost half the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Oman has also begun to exploit its natural gas reserves. Agriculture in Oman is largely at the subsistence level. Dates, tomatoes, melons, and bananas are the primary crops. Tourism is being promoted in an attempt to diversify the economy. Manufacturing is also growing in importance, and major products include copper cathodes, textiles, and cement. In commercial fishing, sardines, tuna, and mackerel are the main catches. The basic unit of currency in Oman is the Omani rial (0.38 rial equal U.S.$1; 1996).

7. Capital City: Masqat

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c: Portuguese from 1508 to 1659 and the Turks until 1741, when the present royal line was founded.

9. Independence date: 1650 (expulsion of the Portuguese)

10. Describe its culture and people: Omani Arabs account for 73.5 percent of the population and include many minority tribes, such as the Shihuh and the Jibalis. Indians and Pakistanis make up most of the non-Omani population.
Arabic is the official language of Oman, and English, Hindi, Urdu, and Baluchi are also widely spoken. Islam is the official religion. Muslims make up 86 percent of the population. Three-fourths of the Muslims are Ibadis; most of the remainder adhere to Sunni Islam and the rest to Shia Islam. Indian Hindus account for 13 percent of the population, and there are also small numbers of non-Omani Christians. Education is free but not compulsory for Omani citizens through the university level.

11. Identify key moments of its history:

· 700s AD - Onset of Arab domination and the introduction of Islam.

· 800s - Ibadiyah Islamic sect begins ruling via a succession of elected and hereditary Ibadite imams.

· 1507 - Portuguese sack Muscat and capture the Omani coast; they are driven out in 1650.

· 1800s-1900s - Omani empire expands to include Zanzibar and Mombasa on Africa's east coast and parts of the Indian subcontinent, reflecting Oman's strong maritime heritage.

· 1737 - Persians invade.

· 1749 - Persians are driven out. The Al Bu Said dynasty comes to power, and continues to rule to this day.

· 1913 - Control of the country splits. The interior is ruled by Ibadite imams and the coastal areas by the sultan. Under a British-brokered agreement in 1920 the sultan recognizes the autonomy of the interior.

· 1954 onwards - Clashes resume between imamite forces, seeking an independent state in the interior, and those of the sultan.

· 1959 - Sultan Said bin Taimur regains control of the interior. His rule is characterized by a fuedal and isolationist approach.

· 1964 - Oil reserves are discovered; extraction begins in 1967.

· 1965-75 - Rebellion in the southern region of Dhofar in which leftist forces are pitted against government troops. The uprising is finally put down with the help of soldiers from Jordan and Iran.

· 1970 - The sultan is overthrown by his son in a bloodless coup. Sultan Qaboos bin Said begins a liberalisation and modernisation programme.

· 1981 - Oman is a founding member of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

· 1997 - Sultan Qaboos issues a decree which allows women from across the country to stand for election to - and vote for - the majlis al-shura or Consultative Council. Two women are duly elected to the body.

· 1999 - Oman and neighbouring United Arab Emirates (UAE) sign a border agreement defining most of their disputed common frontier.

· 2001 October - Large-scale British-Omani military exercises in the Omani desert coincide with the launch of strikes against the Taleban in Afghanistan.

· 2002 November - Sultan Qaboos extends voting rights to all citizens over the age of 21. Voters were previously chosen from among tribal leaders, intellectuals and businessmen.

· 2003 October - First elections to the majlis al-shura in which all citizens over the age of 21 are entitled to vote produce little change in the political make-up of the lower house.

12. Describe the religions of the people: Muslim 98.7%, Christian 1.1%, Jewish 0.2%

13. Describe the form of government: Political authority emanates from Sultan Qaboos bin Said. As sultan, Qaboos is head of state, prime minister, and minister of foreign affairs, defense, and finance. His cabinet carries out the administrative and legal functions of government, and he approves all important decisions. Because Qaboos has initiated the move toward wider citizen participation and providing generous benefits, however, there is little pressure for democratic reform. An 80-member administrative body—without legislative powers—advises Qaboos. Members serve three-year terms.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: Oman is one of the more progressive states in the Gulf region on women’s rights. Since the 1970s, the Omani government has actively promoted female education with impressive results. Women have the right to vote and run for office in elections. Female participation in the workforce remains low and areas of discrimination persist. However, Women’s personal status is dictated by Islamic law. In Oman, the law requires that women have the permission of a father, husband, or male family member to travel outside the country. Women receive less inheritance than their male relatives. The nation ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1996. Female education has dramatically reduced illiteracy. In 1970, there were no schools for girls in the country. By 1984, 84% of adult women were still illiterate. Today, that has been reduced to 43%. Although high illiteracy remains a national problem, women have achieved gender parity with men in education. In 1997-1998, half of enrolled students were girls. A gender quota system has been established in higher education, which accounts for male and female dominated disciplines. Moreover, Gender discrimination is prohibited in the workplace and the law provides for equal pay for equal work and women in the public and private sectors are granted 40 days of paid maternity leave.

15. What are the sources for your ideas about this country?

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http://www.undp-pogar.org/countries/oman/gender.html

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1. Country: Palestine

2. Population: 6.4 million

3. Territory size: About 20,700 square kilometers. Occupied territories comprise additional 7,477 square kilometers: West Bank, 5,879; Gaza Strip, 378; East Jerusalem, annexed in July 1980, 70; and Golan Heights, annexed in December 1981, 1,150.

4. Form of government: Republic

5. Head of state: Yasser Arafat

6. Main economy: The Palestinian infrastructure is mediocre, compared to the Israeli, and on the occupied territories, only Jewish settlers have a standard that can b compared to what is found in their homeland. Over the 6 years of autonomy some growth in the Palestinian industrymotivated by optimism for the future, but this has been halted by lack of funds and uncertainty about what Palestine is coming to. Still the output of Palestine is almost exclusively from the agriculture sector. The Palestinian areas have not expanded beyond agriculture, small scale. The living standards are far better in the West Bank than in Gaza, and economical growth is higher here too. The occupied territories had in 1991 3,700 companies, of which 60% had less than 4 employees, and only 8% had more than 10 employees. All these industries worked for the domestic market, producing food stuffs, tobacco products, beverages but there were also some working with wood conversion. Palestine economy has for years relied upon using Israeli channels, where produce of Palestine, exported to Israel, is re-exported to other countries. Jordan is the second most important market for Palestine. These two countries have received 98% of Palestine's export.

7. Capital City: Jerusalem

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c: Under British and Israel Occupation

9. Independence date: ?

10. Describe its culture and people: On the territory that is occupied by Israel, 90% of the population are Palestinians, and 10% Jewish settlers, but the Jewish settlers are all considered Israeli citizens. Most people in the occupied territories are Sunni Muslims, and relatively zealous. Access to Jerusalem is the largest obstacle for a free practice of religion for most Palestinians. Palestinians living in the freed territories have to go through a lot of formalities, before they are let into Jerusalem, and casual visits are consequently prevented. A small group of Catholic Christians, all Palestinians, live all over the West Bank, and as far as reports go, they live peacefully next to the Muslims.

11. Identify key moments of its history: Much of the history of the region since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one side and Palestinians, represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and Israel's Arab neighbours, on the other. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced, and several wars were fought involving Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

· In 1958 Yasser Arafat set up Fatah (Arabic acronym for Palestine Liberation Movement) in 1958.

· In 1964 Mr Arafat left Kuwait for Jordan, from where Fatah began guerrilla raids into Israel. In 1968 he was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), in effect putting Fatah at the core of the PLO.

· In 1970 he was expelled from Jordan. He redeployed into Lebanon, but was driven from there by Israeli forces in 1982. In Tunisia, where the PLO had set up its headquarters after leaving Lebanon, he escaped an Israeli air strike and Israeli death squads. He also survived an air crash in the Libyan desert and recovered from a serious stroke.

· In 1979 Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement, but it wasn't until the early 1990s, after years of an uprising known as the intifada, that a peace process began with the Palestinians. Despite the hand-over of parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Palestinian control, a "final status" agreement has yet to be reached. The main stumbling blocks include the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlements.

· On 1 July 1994, after 27 years in exile, Mr Arafat returned to Gaza to take up the post of president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to which he had been elected by the PLO Central Committee in October 1993 and confirmed by a plebiscite in 1996.

· But in April 2002 he faced one of his biggest challenges. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared him "irrelevant" and Israeli troops, who had been surrounding his headquarters in Ramallah for four months, battered and occupied most of his compound. However, he survived thanks to international pressure on Mr Sharon to end his siege. For many, Mr Arafat has come to embody the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.

12. Describe the religions of the people: 95% Islam

13. Describe the form of government: Palestine is based upon a constitutional democracy, but has a strong and dominating leader in Yassir Arafat. Divisions in Palestine is often based upon different views on the peace process

At present the rule of the Palestinian territory is not clearly defined by agreements that are not always respected from the Israeli side, and which have not yet solved some of the most central questions: Jewish settlers living on the West Bank and Israeli control over East Jerusalem. The political structures of Palestine are in a process of developing, but as the status of Palestine is far from clear, and will be decided over the following years, the political culture of Palestine will be strongly influenced by this. Over recent years, Democracy is in some fields limited, and civil rights for ordinary citizens are often violated.

14. Describe the family system and gender system: The family constitutes the fundamental building-block of Palestinian society. Family status is largely dependent upon its honor, much of which is determined by the by the respectability of its daughters, who can damage it irreparably by the perceived misuse of their sexuality. "The honor of a family is very dependent on a woman's virginity," said Shadia Sarraj of the Women's Empowerment Project at the Gaza Community Mental Health Project. A woman's virginity is the property of the men around her, first her father, later a gift for her husband; a virtual dowry as she graduates to marriage. In this context, a woman's 'ard (honor) is a commodity which must be guarded by a network of family and community members. Moreover Palestinian women daily do not only deal with ongoing onslaught on the Palestinian people that defies description but also face sexual abuse, including incest and rape. Today Palestinian women are labouring for self-determination on several fronts. They are working for autonomy on the national level; one of the characteristics of Palestinian women's struggle is their connection to the national liberation movement. At the same time, however, women feel pressure from all sides. They are pressured by the fundamentalists and traditionalists to conserve the "tradition" (read that, patriarchal tradition). They are pressured by "revolutionary" male leaders to sacrifice their own freedom for the more crucial independence of the people (which can be read as the male people). Still, the main challenge in from of the Palestinian women today is to realize the relationship between the personal and the political, between public/political/ and internal reasons for the current political-economic and social discrimination against women

15. What are the sources for your ideas about this country?

http://www.merip.org/mer/mer206/ruggi.htm

http://i-cias.com/e.o/palestine_4.htm

http://www.medmedia.org/review/numero1/ing29.htm

http://reference.allrefer.com/country-guide-study

http://www.referenceguides.com/cia_world_factbook

The Encarta® Desk Encyclopedia Copyright © & ℗ 1998 Microsoft Corporation.

1. Country: Qatar

2. Population: 793,341

3. Territory size: 11,427 sq km (4412 sq mi)

4. Form of government: traditional monarchy

5. Head of state: Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifah Al Thani

6. Main economy: Petroleum provides most of Qatar's income. Manufactures include cement, fertilizer, and petroleum products. Herding is the principal agricultural occupation. The unit of currency is the Qatar riyal (3.64 riyal equal U.S.$1; 1996).

7. Capital City: Doha

8. Under which empire in 19^th or 20 th c: In 1916 it became a British protectorate

9. Independence date: 3 September 1971 (from UK)

10. Describe its culture and people: The population of includes a large number of migrant laborers from neighboring states. The official language is Arabic, although English is widely used in government and commerce. Most native Qataris belong to the Islamic Wahhabi sect.

11. Identify key moments of its history: Settled since the Stone Age, Qatar was ruled for centuries under various Arab groups.

· 1700s - Migrants establish pearling and trading settlements along the coast of present-day Qatar.

· 1871-1913 - Turkish Ottoman forces establish a garrison at the emir's invitation.

· 1916 - Deal signed under which Britain controls Qatar's external affairs in return for guaranteeing its protection.

· 1939 - Oil reserves discovered. Exploitation is delayed by World War II, but oil comes to replace pearling and fishing as Qatar's main source of revenue.

· 1950s - Oil revenues fund the expansion and modernisation of Qatar's infrastructure.

· 1968 - Britain announces that it will withdraw its forces from the Gulf; Qatar negotiates with Bahrain and present-day United Arab Emirates on forming a federation.

· 1971 - Qatar declares independence on 1 September.

· 1972 - Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani takes power in a palace coup after infighting in the ruling family.

· 1990 August - After Iraq invades Kuwait, Qatar says it will allow foreign forces on its soil. Qatari troops later take part in the liberation of Kuwait.

· 1995 - Sheikh Khalifa deposed by his son, Hamad, in a bloodless coup.

· 1996 - Al-Jazeera satellite TV launches, as an independent channel funded by the emir. Based in Qatar but broadcasting to much of the Arab world, it establishes a reputation for its news coverage and willingness to tackle controversial issues.

· 1999 - Municipal elections, the first democratic polls since 1971, mark the start of a democratisation programme.

· 2000 February - A cousin of the emir and 32 other people are jailed for life for planning a foiled coup in 1996.

· 2001 March - Qatar settles long-running border disputes with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

· 2002 - Qatar looms large in US plans for a possible war against Iraq. Its al-Udeid air base is developed and expanded. Washington says it will deploy US Central Command staff to Qatar.

· 2003 March-April - Qatar-based US Central Command forward base serves as the nerve centre in the US-led military campaign in Iraq.

· 2003 April - Voters approve a new constitution, which provides for a 45-member parliament with 30 elected members and the rest selected by the emir. The foreign minister says the vote puts Qatar on the list of democratic countries.

· 2003 August - In a surprise move, the emir names his younger son Prince Tamim as crown prince, replacing his other son Prince Jassim

12. Describe the religions of the people: Muslim 95%

13. Describe the form of government: Qatar is a monarchy under an emir, who is also the prime minister and who appoints the executive Council of Ministers.