Iraqi women fear they will be restricted

[Rose Siding]

BAGHDAD — The women at Nasar's beauty salon were Christian and Muslim, both Sunni and Shiite, but they spoke with one voice on an issue that worries them all.

"I'm sure they will form an Islamic government and our freedom will be gone," Suzan Sarkon, 30, said as she settled in to get her long black hair trimmed. "We've never lived freely in Iraq, and now I think we never will."
...
These days a trip to the beauty salon is one of the few escapes for women who no longer feel safe going out on the streets. At Nasar's, in one of Baghdad's safer neighborhoods, customers linger after their beauty treatments, smoking cigarettes, sipping sweet black coffee and talking about their increasingly restricted lives.
...
The other women listened with sympathy and alarm.

"If George Bush thinks this is liberation, then he should make his own wife and daughters wear hijab," scoffed Hanan Azzawi, 36, one of the salon's stylists....

"He will have to issue visas for America with this new constitution, because we will all be leaving," she said. "Do they need hairdressers in America?"

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050315/NEWS/503150347/1002

[Robbien]

1. Riverbend talks about this

It is so disheartening reading her blog where she talks about how her rights and freedom are slowly eroding away.

[realFedUp]

4. Riverbend would make a good interview on 60 Minutes

Has any media outlet interviewed her yet?
seems obvious.

If more women internationally would speak
up about the rights of women in fundie Muslim
countries, maybe the argument that these peoples
are experiencing democracy would vanish.

[anarchy1999]

6. For those of you who don't know Riverbend:

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Also be sure to check out her friend's blog and that of his family's, especially his mother's, Faiza. They all put a much needed perspective on what is happening. I just wish their voices could be heard by more of US in this "God Blessed" nation.

http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

[chelsea0011]

2. It is very difficult to change a culture ruled by men.

If you saw 60 Minutes last Sunday, you can see the obstacles. The Muslim French woman from Parliament was seen taking her cause to an audience. The men in front were about to burst head arteries, they were so angry. How dare her.

[oldcoot]

7. Women did have rights in Iraq before the invasion

Although Iraq was obviously a male-dominated culture before the invasion, it was a secular culture and women did have rights. Iraq was definitely no Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan. However, since the invasion, women are losing their rights. They no longer have the freedom to go where they please without risking being kidnapped and/or raped. They are also concerned that the new constitution will include elements of Islamic law, which would be very bad for women.

[UCLA Dem]

3. those stupid neocons are so ignorant and arrogant

from what i've read and seen, freedom has to be won by the people within the actual culture.

they have to want it and win it. if foreign people come in and demand, it almost undermines the cause because now its not their choice. naturally they feel impressed upon and compelled to oppose.

i don't know what makes these idiot repukes thing they are any different from the historic escapades of the british, french, russians or any other imperialistic colonialist. it didn't work then and its sure as hell not going to work now.

[me b zola]

5. Ah, the wisdom of george bush

The only thing that I see on the march is religious fundamentalism. Every policy, every move that his criminal administration has made, pushes the world further from peace & justice.