Iraqi women once had more rights and freedom than most others in the Arab world

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/79251/

Iraqi Women Hit Hard by Occupation

By Dahr Jamail, IPS News. Posted March 11, 2008.

WASHINGTON, Mar 6 (IPS) - Iraq, where women once had more rights and freedom than most others in the Arab world, has turned deadly for women who dream of education and a professional career.

Former dictator Saddam Hussein maintained a relatively secular society, where it was common for women to take up jobs as professors, doctors and government officials. In today's Iraq, women are being killed by militia groups for not conforming to strict Islamist ways.

Basra police chief Gen. Jalil Hannoon told reporters and Arab TV channels in December that at least 40 women had been killed during the previous five months in that city alone.

"We are sure there are many more victims whose families did not report their killing for fear of scandal," Gen. Hannoon said.

The militias dominated by the Shia Badr Organisation and the Mehdi Army are leading imposition of strict Islamist rules. The Shia-dominated Iraqi government is seen as providing tacit and sometimes direct support to them.

The Badr Organization answers to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), the Shia bloc in the Iraqi government. The Mehdi army is the militia of anti-occupation Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. ...but..but..That was under that tyrant Saddam Hussein!!!!!

Most of those who supported, and still support the war in Iraq could not give a rat's ass about women's rights. I would guess they are an identical set with those who are gungho to invade Iran.

[TheWraith]

6. Yup.

Truly, Hussein was a prick, but on a scale of prickishness, he fell well below most of his neighbors. The Saudis, supposedly the nice people of the Arab world, amputate hands as punishment for petty theft. The Syrians have an unseemly fondness for political assassination. The Iranians? Here's a good one--they recently imprisoned 50 or so young men for dancing in front of a shopping center and flirting with women.

Really, the only countries in the Middle East who don't require a radical change of leadership are Jordan and Lebanon. But if I were making a list, Saddam would probably have been number four or five.

[Virginia Dare]

2. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!...

I'm sure Osama has a big old grin on his face if he's reading this.

[tanyev]

3. What? Time to send Karen back over there for another propaganda tour.

They're starting to ignore the playbook.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. K&R n/t

[NNN0LHI]

5. But Angelina told me the surge was working

[PA Democrat]

7. And Bush continues to push the bullshit about how he is bringing "freedom" to Iraq.

From today's New York Times:

President Bush delivered a rousing defense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, mixing faith and foreign policy as he told a group of Christian broadcasters that his policies in the region were predicated on the beliefs that freedom was a God-given right and “every human being bears the image of our maker.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/world/middleeast/12prexyweb.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

It makes me want to puke. Iraqi children aren't doing so well either. One in eight will die before reaching their 5th birthday. Congratulations George Bush! Iraq's child mortality rates are undergoing the fastest increase in the world.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/infant-mortality-in-iraq-soars-as-young-pay-the-price-for-war-447931.html

[nomorenomore08]

8. That alone would be bad enough, but it's not just women. Christians and gays are also

way more persecuted now than they were under Saddam.

All in all, if Bush really wanted to bring freedom to Iraq (and I don't think for a moment that he did), he went about it in the worst possible way. Thinking of what some groups have done to others in post-invasion Iraq, I'm reminded of that quote about "democracy" being two wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. In this case it's true.