Southwest Africa and Northwest Asia

1. Recently in Iran a soccer game lead to some severe penalties for its participants, Why? and what were the penalties?The first mixed soccer game — females vs. males — since the 1979 Islamic revolution led to swift punishment Monday, as an Iranian soccer club said it had suspended three officials involved and handed out fines of up to $5,000. Iran's strict Islamic rules ban any physical contact between unrelated men and women.

2. What is Sharia or Shar'iah law?
The Islamic religious laws, a legal system based on Islamic principles of jurisprudence. It's dealing with politics, economics, banking, business, contracts, family, sexuality, hygiene, and social issues.

3. What is the difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslims?
The Shiite focus on the person of the Imam made the community susceptible to division on the issue of succession. But Sunni is the largest branch of Islam.. They just have different believes on many topics.

4. Three major religions have their beginnings in this region. What are they and what did they begin?
Judaism is the oldest surviving monotheistic religion, arising in the eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium B.C.E. Abraham is traditionally considered to be the first Jew and to have made a covenant with God. Because Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all recognize Abraham as their first prophet, they are also called the Abrahamic religions.

Christianity started as an offshoot of Judaism in the first century C.E. Until the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 324 C.E., early Christian communities were often persecuted. It was then that the Roman Empire became the Holy Roman Empire, and its capital relocated from Rome to Constantinople

Islam arose in the early seventh century C.E. in the settled desert community of Mecca (in present-day Saudi Arabia). It developed from both the Judeo-Christian tradition and the cultural values of the nomadic Bedouin tribes of Arabia. BONUS: A squat toilet (also known as an Eastern or Natural-Position toilet) is a toilet used by squatting, rather than sitting. There are several types of squat toilets, but they all consist essentially of a hole in the ground. It is also used in the Middle East and can be found in rural areas of Greece and Italy. It is also very common in Iran and prevalent throughout most of China and South East Asia.