Instant messaging

But other young people are treading a cautious, secretive path towards love marriages, aided by technology.

Ahmed, 26, is in love with his girlfriend of five years, but neither of their families know.

They talk often by mobile phone, but their meetings are limited to the 10 minutes between her leaving work and arriving home.

"Yes, I think I will marry her. We've had a long relationship, for five years. She knows all my secrets, I know her secrets," he says.

And Saud, 22, met the girl he describes as his girlfriend two years ago on the internet, through instant messaging software.

Although they talk on the phone, he has seen her only five or six times, by following her from a distance as she shops with her family in a mall. He says she's beautiful.

But, while the couple are finding ways around their society's cultural mores, for them, as for many young people, the consequences of being caught remain all too real.

"We are afraid someone from her family will see and there could be big problems which would mean we couldn't ever marry," says Saud. \4200\

1 sly; shrewdly adroit, ingenious; cleverly devised.

1 to gather, learn, or find out, usu. bit by bit or slowly and laboriously: to glean information.

2 to push roughly or rudely

1 someone's education, achievements, experience etc that prove they have the ability to do something, a letter or other document which proves your good character or your right to have a particular position

2 American EnglishAPT a long narrow part of a stage that stretches out into the area where the audience sits [= catwalk British English]

3 modern, fashionable, and interesting

4 the edge of a piece of cloth that is turned under and stitched down, especially the lower edge of a skirt, trousers etc

5 steer clear (of somebody/something) informal to avoid someone or something unpleasant or difficult

6 What you wear on your head

7 showing all the best or most typical qualities of something, old, but high quality

1 RUMOR, GOSSIP, NEWS

2 to bring forward, mention, call to another's attention especially as an example, proof, or precedent

3 to indicate or call for recognition of as existent, present, or related not by express statement but by logical inference or association or necessary consequence

4 not easily comprehended or defined

5 to oppose successfully: (1) : to defeat the hopes, aspirations or plans of

1 To converge - to come together, meet, or join so as to form a single product or come to bear on or conclude in a single thing or place

2 to hook – (here) to connect

3 banal, of, relating to, or characteristic of the world : characterized by human affairs, concerns, and activities that are often practical, immediate, transitory, and ordinary

4 flight operations buildings

5 chiefly Britain : EQUIPMENT, GEAR

6 in a straight or direct manner, directly

7 having less than the full or a specified amount or number

8 to work aimlessly, fruitlessly, or pointlessly

1¹ to introduce (as a new product) especially for widespread sale to the public

2 a brief period of time : INSTANT, MOMENT, TRICE

3 strike or wipe with a sweeping motion

4 to develop by or as if by evolution : undergo evolutionary change

5 to punch - to record (data) by perforating a card or tape

6 to follow the tracks or traces of : pursue by following marks made by (the pursued)

7 an itemized list of current assets: a list of merchandise held for sale

8 to subtract or make smaller : DEDUCT, REDUCE *new procedures shave T minutes from the unloading process— New York Times*

9 a bettering of condition : IMPROVEMENT

10 to give something to someone and get something in return [= exchange]

11 [transitive] to make something clear by what you say or do - used in news reports:

Both sides have signaled their willingness to start negotiations. [transitive] to be a sign that something is going to happen

12 [di'maiz] formal the end of something that used to exist

13 [ai pod] a small piece of electronic equipment for playing music, made by the Apple computer company. You can carry an iPod around with you and it can store a very large amount of music which you get from the Internet.

1 to catch the attention of

2 to increase

3 to define clearly or unequivocally : FIX, ESTABLISH — usually used with down

4 given to, marked by, or arising from malice

5 by chance, unaware

6 to pick up, gather together, or acquire information or other material bit by bit from some source

7 the quality or state of being vulnerable(open to attack or damage)

1 British English formal -while

2 wireless application protocol - a system that uses radio waves to allow electronic equipment that is not physically attached to a computer, for example a mobile phone, to use the Internet

3 To deploy – to organize or move soldiers, military equipment etc so that they are in the right place and ready to be used

4 existing everywhere

5 a statement that someone has done something wrong or illegal, but that has not been proved

4