Anchor Lisa Mullins goes through our listener email bag.
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LISA MULLINS: I'm Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. Our Global Hit and the answer to our Geo Quiz are coming up. Right now, a quick detour to check on comments from our listeners. The first one today relates to President Obama's speech in Turkey on Monday. Mr. Obama commented on, among other things, recent efforts to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia. He also spoke about the mass killing of Armenians under the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. Armenians call it a genocide – Turkey officially does not. Our coverage prompted listener Jim Flora to send us an email. He wrote, “I felt compelled to write in response to your discussion of U.S.-Turkey relations, specifically your discussion of the Armenian genocide,†as he called it. “To those unfamiliar with the history involved could easily have gotten the impression that reasonable people could disagree on whether such an event actually occurred. This is simply not the case. There is an overwhelming body of evidence,†he writes, “that an episode of mass killing occurred. Discussing the “Armenian Genocide question†does an injustice to the historic record.†That again, from Jim Flora, one of our listeners. We'll return to this issue tomorrow, when The World's Aaron Schachter reports on what's driving efforts to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia. Another listener contacted us to comment on our coverage of the Muslim world. Paul Simons called us after hearing two stories on our program that dealt with the treatment of women in Muslim society. The first was an interview about the documentary film “Forbidden Lie$†about con artist Norma Khouri. Here's a clip from the film where a Jordanian journalist questions some of the ideas Khouri states about how Muslim women are treated in Jordan. “There are many women who travel alone to other Arab countries to study. We don't have male escorts with us. There is more than 24 percent of women in the labor force. These are the official numbers. Do all these women go with men?†And here's what caught Paul Simon's attention.
PAUL SIMONS: I frequently hear on your program a general attitude that Islam is just fine. There's nothing wrong with it. Today, you had one thing about Norma Khouri and the commentator was talking about how life in a Jordanian city is like walking down the street in Peoria, Illinois or anywhere else – everything is fine. You also had a segment out of Afghanistan about how a law has just passed that allows them to be raped in the context of their marriage. Well, they say the unexamined life isn't worth living. Well, the unexamined religion isn't worth living, either.
MULLINS: That's listener Paul Simons. We welcome your letters and your calls. Our email address is theworld@pri.org. That's The World – one word -- @pri.org You can also reach us by phone at (617) 300-5750. That number again is (617) 300-5750. Either way, please tell us where you are and how we should pronounce your name.
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