For Iraqi Girls, Changing Land Narrows Lives

[DaveSZ]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/27/international/middleeast/27GIRL.html


For Iraqi Girls, Changing Land Narrows Lives
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Published: June 27, 2004


BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 26 — To catch a glimpse of the future of this country, look for a moment through the eyes of teenage girls who are coming of age here in the capital.

In an air-conditioned bedroom with pink everything on the walls, Yosor Ali al-Qatan, 15, stares longingly at a hip-hugging pair of pink pinstriped pants. The new Iraq, her mother warns her, is far too dangerous for a 15-year-old girl to be seen in such pants.



In a hair salon where Baghdad's ladies of leisure come to put blond streaks in their hair, Beatrice Sirkis, 14, quietly sweeps the floor. Her father, a retired soldier who has fallen on hard times, had to choose between sending her, or her older brother, to school. Beatrice was chosen to work.

What long-term effect any of this will have remains to be seen. In a country that was once singular in the Arab world for its ranks of educated, professional women, it is impossible to tell whether the fate of today's teenage girls will be any different from that of their mothers.

-more

[Habibi]

1. Swell. Wonder if Laura Bush will

speak on behalf of the women in Iraq, like she did Afghan women.

[MaineDem]

2. This makes me heartsick

I'm so glad we're "liberating" them.

I do hope the Stepford First Lady speaks up for them. But she'll have to be told what to say first.

[acmavm]

4. Laura bush* promised to do all these wonderful things for the Afgani

women, remember? And what has she done so far? Not a damn thing. Her promises, like her husband's, are just a bunch of talk.

[kayell]

3. But, things are so much better now that evil Saddam is gone

/sarcasm

This is heartbreaking, and as so many of the tragedies of this illegal war, was predicted by people who did not buy the BFEE/PNAC fairy tales.

[Moderator]

5. duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x649077