Perceptions of Sindhi Muslims Towards Exogamous Marriages: An Exploratory Study

It has been said that exogamous marriages tend to lead to language shift (Igboanus & Wolf, 2009 & Dumanig, David & Shanmuganathan, 2013). In an early study Gal (1978) found that Hungarian women marrying German men in the city of Oberwat had shifted to German to negate their peasant Hungarian ancestry and to move up the socio-economic ladder. Similarly, David and Dealwis (2011) found in their study of Malaysian Sindhi Hindus that exogamous marriages tend to lead to language shift but is not the only reason for the shift away from the heritage language. Therefore, before mixed marriages take place one should study perceptions of the speech community towards such marriages. In this exploratory study, the perceptions of Sindhi Muslims-men and women and from different socio-economic groups towards exogamous marriages are studied. With this objective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Sindhi Muslim participants (four male adults and six female adults) who live in Karachi. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded and themes were generated after formal consent was obtained. The findings show that language choice in the home domain is shifting because of intercultural marriages. Also, such marriages are frequent among Sindhi community members with a high socio-economic status who live in cities. Gender plays an equal role too, as the women respondents showed mixed responses towards exogamous marriages while the male respondents had a more positive perception. Such views and perceptions may affect choice of marital partners and language choice in the home domain.

Effect of Organic and Inorganic Amendments in Reducing Bioavailability of Heavy Metals from Textile Industry Effluent

As the sense of fashion and modernism improves day by day the requests for apparel and clothing also increases. Hence, different kinds of garments, clothing and home textiles are industrialized to fulfill the increasing demands. Faisalabad; a city of Pakistan, is known for its different material enterprises. On the opposite side, this city additionally involved plentiful rural land. In Faisalabad irrigation is commonly done by reused sewage water from these textile units due to scarcity of better quality water. Agriculturists use surplus water to raise their crops as they consider it a healthier spring of nutrients, taking as substitution of excellent quality water round of the year. Heavy metals, i.e. lead, chromium, cadmium, and copper etc. are present in textile dyes which are used to assemble the dyestuffs. These metals which have been moved to the surroundings are noxious and can piled up` in the human body, water bodies and may incorporate in to the soil. To reclaim the metal degraded soils different practices are existing, amongst one is to incorporate organic and inorganic amendments in polluted soils to lessen the entry of metals into food chain by immobilizing them. Considering these evidences, a project was designed to observe the effect of organic and inorganic amendments to diminish the uptake of lethal metals in plants from textile effluent. Three tests were performed. In the first investigation the effluent acquired from different textile mills situated at different locations in Faisalabad and physico-chemical characterization of these effluent samples was done to check the pollution load. Heavy metal substances were also resolute in these samples by using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results revealed that all the effluent samples had a substantial quantity of pollutants especially chromium (Cr) metal which was present in higher concentration as compared to other heavy metals. On the basis of results, it was determined that Dawood Textile Industry generated more polluted effluent containing high contents of Cr and drained out it in the main drains without treatment. Hence effluent was collected from Dawood Textiles to use it for irrigation in second and third experiments. In second experiment accumulation of Cr in shoots and roots of spinach was checked. In third trial effectiveness of poultry manure (PM) and gypsum to immobilize the Cr was checked. Vegetables were reaped at maturity. Growth and physiological parameters were analyzed. Plant samples were also examined for Cr and micronutrients concentration. The post-harvest soil was tested for chemical analysis and Cr concentration was also analyzed at the completion of the trial. The outcomes of various concentration of textile water 0, 10, 25, 50 and 100% on growth of spinach revealed that control plants had improved growth as there was no stress of effluents while major decrease in growth was noted in plants where 100% textile effluent was applied. Cr concentration was also high in plants irrigated with 100% textile effluent. The organic and inorganic amendments were reduced the uptake of Cr and also improved growth and physiology of plants. Moreover, from different levels of both the amendments poultry manure @ 1% with the combination of 50% textile effluent concentration proved to be more operative in dropping the uptake of Cr to different plant parts.