Blood money

As someone from the West who is unacquainted with blood money, the article “Scholars express concern over exorbitant blood money demands” (Aug 5) was very interesting. It seems that diya or blood money was restricted to 100 camels fourteen hundred years ago. In those ancient times, people traveled by donkey, horse or camel, while today they would travel by bike, scooter or automobile. Perhaps blood money could be reassessed and restricted to the total price of one bike,one scooter and one fancy car.

I smiled while reading the editorial “Saudi Arabia’s Olympic moment” (Aug 5) in which it was said that the high noon drama of the use of headscarves in the Olympic Games could have been avoided. However, I would like to point out that this non-bloody drama filled the pages of newspapers and other media, diverting gloomy news about Myanmar, Syria, Timbuktu, floods in the Philippines, drought in India, etc.

Olga Pitcairn, US