alina92

I'm Sunni myself and I agree with this. In my experience, sc is more diverse and open minded. People are, generally, extremely civil in their discussions and people can freely ask questions without being attacked. I had a rather bad experience with sunni forum. I was quite shocked at the vitriol over a simple question. It was the first forum I visited and was surprised at how people were. I thought that I would be able to get a few reasonable responses from different perspectives because users on a forum don't know each other personally and the anonymity allows people to freely express themselves. Yeah, I was quite wrong about that. I'm sure not all users on that site are that horrible but never again.

Glad to hear all is well with you! :-) I've been well too.

Thank you @starlight! How've you been?

It's amazing how much things change in couple a years and how much our perspectives change. Things that used to get under your skin are pretty much irrelevant now. Cliche but true. On another note, this site has changed quite a bit too. I've been on here on and off for the past week after not being on for a little over a year and half and it looks so different!

I have a few! - People who stand to close to you in line at the atm, store, Starbucks, etc. Back up! - People who take ages to order at Starbucks. You've been standing in line for a few minutes and have had time to think about it but are just now deciding what to order? - When you're waiting for someone, you ask them where they are, and they say "I'm 5 minutes away!" when what they really mean is "I've yet to leave my driveway." - Over-analysing minute things. Sometimes, it's just not that that serious. Smh.

I quite dislike oatmeal but there is a dish that's common in my culture (Afghan) that I thought would be interesting to mention. It's traditionally a winter dish and is a bit different in that it's a savoury rather than sweet. It's called halim. It's rather like oatmeal porridge with chicken flavoured with cardamom and butter. The chicken is first boiled, along with onion, a cinnamon quill and salt. It'd then added (along with the broth) to oats, bulgur wheat, cardamom and baked for a few hours. It's served topped with a knob of butter (or a dollop of hot oil) and dusted with brown sugar and cinnamon. Personally, I don't prepare the dish often as I find it quite unpalatable as I don't like oatmeal (and also have coeliac's disease and can't eat bulgur).

I'm not Iranian, so I don't know if my reply will be all that useful. My husband (who is Iranian) and I are currently visiting and everything has been quite alright. As everyone else has pointed out, if one is a law abiding person, safety isn't any more of a concern than it would be in any other foreign country. As far as being comfortable with the culture and things of that nature, in my experience, it depends on the type of person one is and the particular area where one is staying. We stayed in Qom for about a week and are currently staying in Tehran. Personally, I haven't had any issues in either place. However, a rather un-religious and outgoing relative of my husband's hated Qom, stating it was bland, boring, and had nothing to do, but is quite happy here, so I suppose certain personality types may be more suited to certain areas.

No one is denying that there are unhappily married couples or that the divorce rate is higher than in past eras. I simply stated that it is false that ALL married people are unhappy as a couple of posters insinuated. The fact that there are people who are unhappily married or more divorces than in the past still doesn't mean that EVERY married person is unhappy or wants a divorce. If everyone around you is miserable and unhappily married, it is unfortunate and I'm sorry to hear that but, again, they don't represent EVERY married person out there and it's silly to claim otherwise. If someone believes that marriage is not for them and believes that they would be more content being single than married, that is absolutely fine. There is absolutely no shame in doing what they feel is right for them. They're quite free to abstain from marriage. There really is no need to make ridiculous generalizations and claim that everyone who chose differently is miserable and unhappy to justify their own choices. Yes, I do (currently San Francisco and previously Los Angeles) and yes, people are getting married. I'm in my early twenties and got married a few months back. I also have a few family members, friends, classmates acquaintances and the like who are my age (or near my age) who have gotten married or are in the process of doing so. Everyone's circumstances are different and getting married at that age may not be viable or even desirable for every single person out there and it would be grossly inaccurate to claim otherwise. However, it's equally inaccurate that claim that every single person out there is having to delay marriage until 30+ as many people on here are quite fond of claiming.

He didn't say that anyone in particular was at fault for that perception or that there was anything wrong with being an angry, gun-totting, rough-looking bearded guy. I think his point was simply that the above happens to be the image that most people in the West have of Afghan men and as such, they are surprised when they meet his friend, who doesn't look like that at all.

There is nothing wrong with it but not every man in Afghanistan looks that way, as Marbles rightly pointed out. In fact, the majority of men don't.

Yes, you're quite right! I think this ^ is one of the characteristics that separates CO from ODD. (I looked it up in my Psych textbook after reading your post. :lol: )

Yes. :D Men with looks/features similar to that of the photogenic gentleman in the photo Chaotic posted are quite common in the part of Afghanistan my family is from.

I've seen a few gluten free flours and flour blends at the shops but I've not experimented extensively. I've baked with almond flour on a couple of occasions and I sometimes bake certain Afghan pastries, which specifically use rice, corn, or chickpea flour but that's about it. To be honest, I don't really crave bread or pastries as I've grown up not eating those things, so I've never been bothered enough to really experiment with gluten free baking or buy the special pans required. The few gluten free breads/pastries I bake: Doday (called "naan" on the subcontinent) made from chickpea flour. Doday are most commonly made from wheat flour but they can also be made from other flours, such as these (from chickpea flour) which are common in the part of Afghanistan my family is from: Roat e Jawaree (Sweet bread loaf made of corn flour): Kulcha e badam (Meringue-esque biscuits made from almond flour and topped with almond slivers): Kulcha e birinji (Biscuits made from rice flour and pistachios):

I simply stated that many young, inexperienced male members suggest mutah as the solution to every problem posters discuss on on here, which is true. I did not specifically name you (or other member) but if the shoe fits... As for the rest of your comment, you're responding to someone else as I never commented on whether mutah is allowed, acceptable, or whether women should engage in it. Frankly, I really couldn't care less about the specifics of mutah and whether or not men or women engage in it. Perhaps you could learn to use the reply button properly and reply to the correct poster before accusing others of being illogical.

Your friend should seek professional help immediately. What you describe sounds quite like oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), a disorder which is characterised by repeated temper tantrums, deliberate disobedience, destructive behavior, such as deliberately breaking things and causing damage, deliberately attempting to annoy or upset others, attempting to harm others without provocation, frequent angry outbursts, and spiteful and hateful behavior. This condition is quite common among abused or neglected children and requires immediate attention as it can become quite severe and escalates as the child ages. The sister of a friend of mine is a child psychologist and she's mentioned that she sees it quite alot in children that have been adopted from unfortunate situations.