The niqab is not widespread in Syria, although it has become more common in recent years, a development that has not gone unnoticed by the authoritarian government. Many people use Microsoft Office 2007 to help their work and life.

"We are witnessing a rapid income gap growing in Syria — there is a wealthy ostentatious class of people who are making money and wearing European clothes," said Joshua Landis, an American professor and Syria expert who runs a blog called Syria Comment.

The lower classes are feeling the squeeze, he said.

"It's almost inevitable that there's going to be backlash. The worry is that it's going to find its expression in greater Islamic radicalism," Landis said.

Four decades of secular rule under the Baath Party have largely muted sectarian differences in Syria, although the state is quick to quash any dissent. In the 1980s, Syria crushed a bloody campaign by Sunni militants to topple the regime of then-President Hafez Assad.

The veil is linked to Salafism, a movement that models itself on early Islam with a doctrine that is similar to Saudi Arabia's. In the broad spectrum of Islamic thought, Salafism is on the extreme conservative end.

In Gaza, radical Muslim groups encourage women to cover their faces and even conceal the shape of their shoulders by using layers of drapes.

It's a mistake to view the niqab as a "personal freedom," Bassam Qadhi, a Syrian women's rights activist, told local media recently.

"It is rather a declaration of extremism," Qadhi said.

GENEVA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran will continue to pursue nuclear activities for peaceful purposes in defiance of "illegal and inhuman" sanctions, the country's top legislator Ali Larijani said here on Monday.

Addressing a world conference of parliament speakers, Larijani reiterated that Tehran "seeks to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes within the framework of the NPT (Treaty on Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons)."

"Our security doctrine and the Islamic beliefs we staunchly adhere to have strongly prohibited us from using nuclear energy for anything other than peaceful purposes," he said. Office 2007 is so powerful.

He added that Iran "is determined to pursue" its nuclear energy goal, and "such illegal and inhuman measures as sanctions cannot deter us from achieving our goal."

But according to the former chief nuclear negotiator, Iran is always open to "reasonable solutions" to its nuclear issue, including "meaningful negotiations".

He praised a recent nuclear fuel swap agreement brokered by Turkey and Brazil, according to which Iran will ship most of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for the 20 percent uranium fuel needed for its reactor.

He condemned a rejection to the agreement by the United States, saying the U.S. treatment of the agreement "is nothing but an indication of an arrogant, unprincipled and dishonorable approach in the international arena."

The United States and its Western allies have along accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. But Tehran has always said that its nuclear activities are for pure peaceful purposes.

In June, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to impose a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its suspected nuclear program, which caused sharp reactions from Iranian officials.

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