April 12, 2004

The canary in the coal mine? "The only certain losers, it seems, will be women. The era when Iraqi women could become lawyers and scientists, could legally drive cars, uncover their heads and be supervisors of men in the workplace seems about to be lost."
posted by rodgerd 20 years ago
  • Sorry, rodgerd. I think monkeys don't want to touch this on a Monday because it's too depressing? It's an ill wind that blows no good, however; I think the one good that has come out of all this is that people around the world are learning more everyday about Islam, and the fact that it is not monolithic. Not every Muslim is a terrorist, or a fundie. Just hope we can halt the flow of Muslims who are turning into fundies with this improved global understanding of the religion.
  • That is their culture not ours, if we force womens rights then we are just invaders rather than liberators.
  • pos: I assume you're being tongue in cheek,.
  • poz does bring up an important point tho...not that I agree with poz, but I do think its necessary to make sure one's zeal for liberation is not mixed up with cultural hegemony. If none of the women wanted equal rights, it would be invasion. of course, based on such items as the article linked to by homunculus, it would seems that many many women in Iraq do indeed desire many of the rights and priveleges the west terms "freedom", but they are presently prevented from getting it for themselves in any way. if I were inclined to harbor paranoid fantasies I'd have to wonder at the duel development of fundamentalist reduction of womens' rights in the US, and the role of the war in Iraq with fueling the extremists insurgents and other "terrorists" representing fundy Islam...is the real global fight a war on womens' indepedence? or paging Margaret Atwood...
  • Under Saddam's Bathist regiem, secular women in Iraq wore jeans and t-shirta , and comprised more than 50% of the student population. One of those is Riverbend, whose blog is Baghdad Burning. She talked about Abu Graib long before it became a scandal in the west. I know that I read her take on having to wear more treditional, concealing clothes, and only being able to leave her house with male relatives, since the religious fringe was targeting secular women. I couldn't find those posts, but maybe I scanned to fast. Or, maybe she took them down because they could cause her family problems. She lost her job at a university because of her secular orientation, and that story appears to be missing from her blog, although it was there before. But, if you haven't read it before, her entries give you a striking picture of what the war there has meant, on a day-to-day basis, to some Iraqis.
  • BBC News on the The Open Shutters: Iraq exhibition, photo diaries by Iraqi women. More from the Independent. Six-year old Dima was an accidental addition to the project.
  • I could weep looking at the pictures of Dima. May Bush and all warmongering men rot in hell.