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Southwest Africa Research Paper

Decent Essays

The lives of the people in the Southwest Asia and North Africa region has changed drastically in the last century. With improved health care and high birthrate, the region’s population has grown rapidly. Making one-third of the population in most countries under the age of fifteen. A large number of people of the region have moved to urban areas. This change in the lives of the people have made it difficult for them to maintain their cultural values as technological advances continue. Religion is an important part of the lives of the people in the region. Many religions have emerged in the Southwest Asia and North Africa region. The vast majority of the people in the region are Muslim, worshipers of Islam. Islam originated in Southwest Asia …show more content…

It is also the second language of the Jewish people. Hebrew originated in the Levant and used by ancient Israelites. Hebrew is a Semitic language that was introduced into the region with the creation of Israel. Sematic people are found from the Persian gulf to the Atlantic and southward into Sudan. Afro-Asiatic languages dominate the region more so in the remote areas of North Africa. The region’s main language is Arabic, but Hebrew, Berber, and Turkish are also spoken. The Arabic language is important to Muslims because it was the language where Muhammad received a message from God. Indo-European languages dominate the Iranian Plateau and the nearby mountains of Southwest Assia. The principle tongue is Persian. The Kurdish language is spoken by ten to fifteen million people in the region. The Kurds have a strong sense of shared cultural identiy. Kurdanistan has sometimes been called the world’d largest nation without its own political state. Kurds emerged as a cohesive group in the 2003 war in Iraq. They have now gained more political autonomy. Kurds in eastern Turkey are twenty percent of the nation’s population. The increasingly democratic country allows them more individual rights, but ther are still hoping for regional political autnonmy. Kurdish speakers of northern Iraq, northwest Iran, and eastern Turkey add further complexity to the regional pattern of langauges.

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