WP: Women Lose Ground in the New Iraq

[kskiska]

Once They Were Encouraged to Study and Work; Now Life Is 'Just Like Being in Jail'

Saturday, December 16, 2006; A12

BAGHDAD -- Browsing the shelves of a cosmetics store in the Karrada shopping district, Zahra Khalid felt giddy at the sight of Alberto shampoo and Miss Rose eye shadow, blusher and powder.

Before leaving her house, she had covered her body in a billowing black abaya and wrapped a black head scarf around her thick brown hair. She had asked her brother to drive. She had done all the things that a woman living in Baghdad is supposed to do these days to avoid drawing attention to herself.

It was the first time she had left home in two months.

"For a woman, it's just like being in jail," she said. "I can't go anywhere."

Life has become more difficult for most Iraqis since the February bombing of a Shiite Muslim mosque in Samarra sparked a rise in sectarian killings and overall lawlessness. For many women, though, it has become unbearable.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/15/AR2006121501744.html

[Pirate Smile]

1. Yet many Republicans will talk about how we freed women to

go to school and such - not even understanding the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan i.e. the way women lived in secular Iraq under Hussein and how women lived under the Taliban in Afghanistan.

[rodeodance]

6. similar in many ways don't you think?

[Pirate Smile]

8. No. They were very different - almost opposites.

[Amonester]

2. "Freedom is on the march" shouted the aWoL chimpanzee...

(Yeah. Right.)

Methinks it was all part of the Bu$h Junta's hidden agenda: to deliberatly make Iraq women (those who managed/manage to survive...) feel like they live in jail, in order to justify sending more troops to "liberate" them... only to make their lives worse each and every day, in reality.

Recommend.

[Lipton64]

3. You should hear of the roaming vice squads.....

I recall a story where this one guy was dating a girl and this Shia vice squad in Southern Iraq stopped him. They were all carrying automatic weapons and scared the shit out of the couple. They demanded to know why they were out dating. The guy acted bold and screamed: "how dare you touch my wife, I could have you arrested for this insolence" and then the militiamen backed-down and crawled back to their trucks and apologized humbly.

That's just one instance of extra-judicial "vice squads" running rampant across Iraq. College students at universities frequently are intimidated by Shia thugs to stop all kissing and public showing of affection. Liquor store owners and porn shops have been burned-down and blown up. The owners of said establishments have been killed.

It's a mess but if anybody though we were bringing equality of the sexes to Mesopotamia then they were terribly mistaken. The only thing we've brought is the implementation of Sharia law in both Sunni and Shia areas of Iraq - and it's only going to get worse. The people answer to the clerics and the mullahs. They pay no attention to the civilian authorities. If al-Sistani and/or al-Sadr give certain orders passed down to them from Tehran, they must be obeyed by the Shiite populace.

Bush and his neocon planners were horribly naive in thinking we could change the internal politics of an area that has been at war with itself since The Dark Ages.....

[northofdenali]

4. I just have one question/statement to make about this point...

Duh!??

Check Afghanistan for previous Liberation Moments by Shrub....

[EFerrari]

5. Yo, Special Agent -- If BushCo believes women will put up with this

YOU ARE WORKING FOR INSANE PEOPLE.

We will NEVER go back. NEVER.

:hi:

[tblue37]

7. About those billowing black abayas:

Think about the idea of having one's environment populated by ghostly figures in black robes. There is something spooky about it. I can't help but think it might have a distorting effect on a person's psyche.

[rocktivity]

9. Winner of this month's "You Call This NEWS?" award

Fascist theocracies tend to disenfranchise women--or haven't you noticed?

:eyes:
rocknation

[IndianaGreen]

10. And women in Afghanistan are still forced to wear burqas

All of this American "freedom and democracy" has brought nothing but grief to women and LGBTs in Iraq. Thank you fucken Amerika!