U.S. Embassy Press Release

May 19, 2010

Goldasta Mosque Opening

Kabul, Afghanistan, May 19, 2010 – Minister of Information and Cultural Affairs Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, Minister of Religious Affairs and Hajj Khawas Khan Niazi, and U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry celebrated the restoration and opening of the Goldasta Mosque in ceremony today.  Several Afghan officials and members of the community were present to witness the ceremony.

“The process of restoring Goldasta Mosque not only brought a new community facility back to life, but it has contributed to the revival of traditional building crafts such as joinery and plastering,” said Ambassador Eikenberry. “Dozens of skilled workers and craftsmen worked on the project; the mosque is a great example of their remarkable talents.”

The Goldasta Mosque is fine example of late 19th century religious architecture that incorporates a range of regional decorative influences. While badly damaged in the fierce fighting that raged throughout the old city of Kabul in 1993, it is testament to the quality of the builders of the Goldasta mosque that enough of the structure was still standing to allow restoration of the building to bring it back to useful life.  Thanks to the efforts of residents of the surrounding neighbourhood, the wooden columns and marble panels of the building were protected.

The U.S. Embassy partnered with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) on this project.  In addition to resorting an architecturally significant religious building, the project provided jobs to community members in Kabul’s Tandoorsazi area.

Since 2001 the U.S. government and American institutions such as the National Geographic and National Endowment for the Humanities have spent over $4 million on cultural heritage projects in Afghanistan.  Included in this is the restoration of 8 historic buildings throughout the country.

On-going project include Shish Nal Mosque in Herat, Ulya Madrassa in Kabul, Noh Gonbad Mosque in Balkh and the Qala Ikhtyaruddin citadel in Herat.  Completed projects include the Goldasta Mosque which was opened today, as well as the Khoja Rokhband Cistern in Herat and the Mullah Mahmud Mosque in Kabul.

Source: http://kabul.usembassy.gov/pressrelease-20510.html

By Salim Jiwa

TORONTO – The Aga Khan, one of the world’s wealthiest philanthropists and spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, has filed a lawsuit in Canadian Federal Court for copyright infringement.

Prince Karim Aga Khan is seeking punitive and exemplary damages and an injunction against two of his own followers who have allegedly sold the spiritual leader’s written and oral pronouncements to the Ismaili community world-wide.

The Aga Khan claims in his lawsuit that businessman Nagib Tajdin and Toronto lawyer Alnaz Jiwa and other unknown parties infringed his copyright by reproducing a book that is a collection of his written pronouncements and his speeches.

The lawsuit claims the reproduction was not authorized and that the Aga Khan personally authored the pronouncements and therefore holds sole copyright in the book entitled “Golden Edition – Kalam-E-Imam-E-Zaman.”

“The infringing material consists of  a book entitled “Farmans 1957-2009 – Golden Edition Kalam-E Imam-E-Zaman” (the “Book”). This Book reproduces in substantial part a series of 589 Farmans and 77 Talikas and messages authored by the Aga Khan and delivered in various countries around the world between the years 1957 to 2009. The Book is accompanied by an mp3 audio bookmark preloaded with 14 audio extracts of Farmans read in the Plaintiff’s own voice (the MP3?). Collectively, the Book and MP3, are referred to herein as the “Infringing Materials,” according to the writ filed in Federal Court in Toronto.

The Aga Khan explains that a Farman is an address to his followers while a Talika is a brief written religious instruction to his community.

The Aga Khan’s lawsuit explains that both defendants have engaged in commercial ventures using unauthorized reproduction of material on which he owns the copyright.

The Aga Khan says he is a citizen of the U.K. but lives in France.

Nagib Tajdin is listed as a resident of Montreal and Nairobi, Kenya. Alnaz Jiwa is listed in the suit as a lawyer residing in Scarborough, Ontario.

“Ismailis live in over 25 countries across the world, mainly in South and Central Asia, Africa, Afghanistan, Iran and the Middle East, as well as North America and Western Europe. It is the mandate of the Imam to interpret to his community the faith of Islam as a thinking, spiritual faith that teaches compassion and tolerance and upholds the dignity of man, and also to lead the effort to improve the security and quality of life of his community and the wider societies among which the Ismailis live. The Aga Khan’s communications to his community are conveyed in this privileged context and, hence, he is concerned that their integrity should be safeguarded,” states the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Vancouverite.

The Aga Khan states in his claim that the defendants produced and released the alleged infringing materials consisting of a book and MP3s which were recorded without his consent.

The Aga Khan states the defendants are profiting from the sales of the book in four parts with each part being sold for $50 CAD with the MP3 recording being given as a gift to a purchaser.

Bay Street law firm  Ogilvy Renault filed the lawsuit on April 6. No response has been filed.

Ogilvy Renault is seeking an accounting of all profits made from the sales as well as punitive and exemplary damages.

Aga Khan lawsuit – PDF document from Federal Court.

Source:  click here for original source of this article

Ask Mubina Chunara how to solve a high school algebra equation and chances are she will come up with the solution lickety-split.

But ask the 15-year-old Brampton student about the range of career choices she might have as a math major and the answers haven’t always come as easily.

It wasn’t until Mubina spent a girls-only weekend at University of Waterloo, hosted by a team of enthusiastic female math graduates, that the possibilities multiplied.

Math degree is the ticket

Where can a math degree lead? There are too many permutations and combinations to list, says Fiona Dunbar of University of Waterloo.

Dunbar, director of the annual Think About Math conference for Grade 9 girls, recently surveyed female alumni from the university’s math programs and found they were applying their problem-solving and analytical and numerical skills at companies ranging from communications (Google, RIM and Rogers) to science (European Space Agency) and health care (Canadian Blood Services and Cancer Care Ontario).

Past grads included a planning manager for a clothing store, a food and beverage analyst for an international hotel company and a consultant in the renewable energy industry.

“What we have seen is that you can work in almost any sector or company with a math degree,” Dunbar says. “There is virtually no repetition of the same job title and sector on my list of 900 graduates.”

Girls who want to mix fashion and math might end up at a cosmetics company in web development, data analysis, sales forecasting or marketing.

Here are some other examples of job titles held by female math grads:

- Investment banker

- Software developer for social networking company

- Program manager for a cellphone company

- Actuarial analyst

- Health care consultant

- Information technology consultant

- Statistician

- Professor

Andrea Gordon

“Before I went, math was something I was good at but wouldn’t necessarily look at as a career,” says Mubina, who attended the first Think About Math conference last spring. “But it opened my eyes. I will definitely stick at it.”

Mubina and 39 other girls had discussions with women in a range of math-related careers. They learned they could use math skills to develop online social networks like Facebook, build fashion businesses or help the environment.

In small groups, they pooled their problem-solving skills to navigate a race around campus, analyze results from a survey of female alumni and choose the most economical cellphone plan.

Mubina had never heard of an actuary. Now, she just might become one.

That’s just what Fiona Dunbar likes to hear. She’s a math lecturer at the university and the director of the conference, which will hold two weekend sessions this spring, starting April 29 and May 27, for 80 girls. Online registration closes March 12.

The three-day event is for Grade 9 girls who like math and have a mark of 70 per cent or more. It’s to encourage them to stick with the subject through high school and university and to consider pursuing a math-related career.

“We know from all the studies that girls are just as capable as boys,” says Dunbar, 32, who started as a music major at Waterloo but loved her calculus and linear algebra courses so much that she switched to math, then earned a master’s degree.

She fears that girls are still discouraged by lingering gender stereotypes and modern pop culture messages that focus on looks, weight and bad-girl celebrities. While girls score just as high as boys in standardized tests, women are under-represented in fields like engineering and computer science. In Canada, females account for 17 per cent of engineering undergraduates and a similar gender gap exists in computer science.

International research has shown that teachers and female role models in math-based fields are critical to attracting girls. A recent paper in the bulletin of the American Psychological Association also suggested that girls won’t pursue high-level math if they don’t believe it will lead to appealing career opportunities.

Dunbar, head of the Women in Math Committee at Waterloo and founder of the Canadian Women in Math Association, is doing her best to change the message track.

And she has lots of support.

Last year, she surveyed female alumni from Waterloo’s math programs to trace their career paths and find out what influenced them. She emailed 4,500 questionnaires, hoping to get 50 responses. She received almost 900.

“”It really hit a nerve,” she says. “People really wanted to help and encourage girls to follow in their footsteps.”

Many jumped at the chance to play a role at Think About Math, which includes Q and A sessions with a career panel, hands-on workshops in fields like investment banking and engineering, and a lot of socializing.

Grade 9 girls are targeted because they’re on the cusp of choosing high school courses that will affect their career goals. The idea is to attract those interested in math and who enjoy it, not just students at the top of the class.

The event is sponsored by the university’s Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing and funded through the $12.5 million donation it received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2007 for youth outreach. Participants pay a $75 registration fee and are responsible for transportation. Meals, accommodation and activities are provided by the university.

“It’s really important for girls to have role models and see women in positions they may not have considered,” says Daphne Lucas, a career panel member who works in information security at the consulting firm Deloitte in Toronto.

Lucas, 30, has always loved math and assumed early on that turning that love into a career meant becoming a teacher. But earning her master’s degree in cryptography led her into a field she’d never considered. Today, she helps companies safeguard electronic records and data against security breaches.

In a study last year, Cornell University researchers found many girls who excel at math are also strong in verbal skills and have other talents, so it’s one of several options.

Toronto software consultant Deanne Farrar recalls girls at the conference asked about the possibilities of combining math with fashion, art and other creative pursuits.

“They wanted to know ‘How to I bring those together?’” says Farrar, 44. She’s quick to note that Daniel Lalonde, chief executive officer of luxury products company Louis Vuitton N.A., earned his bachelor’s degree in math at Waterloo.

For Mubina, a Grade 10 student at Turner Fenton Secondary School, the chance to explore math in an all-girl environment and engage in female networking was refreshing.

“It was a real confidence booster, especially being around people that like math as much as you do,” she says. “They were people who really made you feel good about yourself.”

Source: Toronto Star