As I sat in the Governor's office for a shura, a mini-conference of tribal elders, I heard a distant thump.

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Wankel had attended a shura, or council of local elders, a few days before, to explain the mission, and a small group of local Pashtun policemen were on hand, but the A.E.

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The elder Khan also served as member of Majlis a'Shura (the governing council) of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was created by the Muslim Student Association (MSA) in 1977 to promote the Islamist agenda among Muslims and the general population.

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Without adequate preparation, says Abdel-Mohsin al-Akkas, a member of the majlis al-shura, the country's embryonic parliament, elections would be a leap in the dark.

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Each unit about to deploy trains its own "guardian angels" - soldiers who stand watch over their comrades, even when they are with their Afghan allies at a meeting, or "shura".

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Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has sworn in 30 women to the previously all-male Shura Council, seen by many as a major step in female participation in public life in the conservative kingdom.

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We'll have representatives on the Shura Council who can't even go there without a driver.

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The elections had been billed as the start of a process leading eventually to the partial election of the majlis al-shura, the advisory council whose 150 members are currently appointed by the king.

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So far, women have been accepted into the government's advisory Shura Council, given the right to vote, gained entry into a range of new professions (including engineering and law) and granted permission to have their own IDs without guardian permission.

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