We are abandoning the women of Iraq!

[veracity]

Not enough people know that Iraqi women - until our invasion - were the most liberated of all women in the Moslem world. They had total equal rights under the law - were not subject to Koran restrictions of dress, movement, education, or marital rights. The were the only Moslem women, for example, with equal custody rights in divorce cases. They were in every aspect of society - equally educated and even in the army. That's gone, and Shia rule is in. Thanks, Mr. Bush, for liberating them...NOT!

The plight of these women is rarely on the front pages anywhere. Human Rights organizations, and women's groups have taken up the cause, but there is nothing that they can do other than bring the problem to the forefront. I've met so many Americans who believed that Iraqi women wore burqas and were now so happy to be free. On the contrary, honor killings are now common, rapes and kidnappings go on as never before.

There is one story in the news today you might want to read:

"Women in Iraq Decry Decision To Curb Rights - Council Backs Islamic Law on Families For the past four decades, Iraqi women have enjoyed some of the most modern legal protections in the Muslim world, under a civil code that prohibits marriage below the age of 18, arbitrary divorce and male favoritism in child custody and property inheritance disputes...."

http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/news.html#HUMANRIGHTS

[kcwayne]

1. "We" are not abandoning them, the Christian Fundamentalist

government is, just like they abandoned Afghanistan. They probably think that Sharia is fine, and that it puts women in their proper place in the home.

We are also abandoning the idea of democracy in Iraq, since we are no longer supporting an elected government, and are installing one.

Anyone that thinks the US government has any principles hasn't been awake for the last 50 years.

[Skidmore]

11. And they would like to abandon more than just the women of

those two countries. We are being abandoned as well.

[donsu]

15. agree

nt

[veracity]

14. as usual, the media ignores this

The media is promoting the "progress" we're making in Iraq. Despite the ongoing violence, Iraq has all but disappeared from the front pages of the print media...and there's only "good news" on the TV screens. When they open a school, the illusion is that there were no schools before we invaded. What nonsense. The same with hospitals. These are the institutions we destroyed with Shock and Awe hospitality. This is why Bush continues to smile. He's in control of the news. Remember that there are NO reports of civilian deaths allowed any more. That was by US fiat a few weeks ago, - and the media never protested. Lapdogs, all.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[pop goes the weasel]

5. Read what an actual Iraqi woman has to say about it

"During the sanctions and all the instability, we used to hear fantastic stories about certain Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar, to name a few. We heard about their luxurious lifestyles- the high monthly wages, the elegant cars, sprawling homes and malls… and while I always wanted to visit, I never once remember yearning to live there or even feeling envy. When I analyzed my feelings, it always led back to the fact that I cherished the rights I had as an Iraqi Muslim woman. During the hard times, it was always a comfort that I could drive, learn, work for equal pay, dress the way I wanted and practice Islam according to my values and beliefs, without worrying whether I was too devout or not devout enough.

"I usually ignore the emails I receive telling me to 'embrace' my new-found freedom and be happy that the circumstances of all Iraqi women are going to 'improve drastically' from what we had before. They quote Bush (which in itself speaks volumes) saying things about how repressed the Iraqi women were and how, now, they are going to be able to live free lives.

"The people who write those emails often lob Iraq together with Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan and I shake my head at their ignorance but think to myself, "Well, they really need to believe their country has the best of intentions- I won't burst their bubble." But I'm telling everyone now- if I get any more emails about how free and liberated the Iraqi women are *now* thanks to America, they can expect a very nasty answer."

Baghdad Burning

[BigBigBear]

10. Riverbend is a great blog

She does 1000% better job of providing insight about what life is like on the ground in Iraq than any news source.

Interstingly, I have found that gung-ho war supporters generally dis her blog - since she has an internet connection, they believe she is/was a Baathist or somehow a beneficiary of Saddam's largess, and thus naturally anti-US, anti-war, anti-occupation.

The lengths people will go to clutch onto the party line....

[pop goes the weasel]

3. Sadly, it's no surprise

What this administration reminds me of is Old South mentality in which "insults" against the "the flower of Southern white womanhood" was used as a justification for any horror perpetrated against African Americans. The real needs of white women were of no more concern than the real needs of blacks as a whole, but Southern white male bigots could style themselves as heroes doing a dirty job that needed to be done. Look at how, before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the administration poured out an unceasing stream of tales of rape and domestic abuse of Afghan and Iraqi women.

Afghanistan and Iraq have been lynched. As for the women, if they remain unsafe, or even less safe, that just makes it easier to justify future lynchings.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[pop goes the weasel]

6. I'm saying

That, regardless of the real condition of Muslim women, which in many places is indeed terrible, the Bush administration did not really care. It only used the condition of women as an excuse to unleash violence. It has no desire to see an actual improvement in the condition of women.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[pop goes the weasel]

8. Who's saying he's ever against it?

One would think that a man who is truly concerned about the well-being of women would not refuse to fund women's clinics that provide life-saving surgeries on the off chance that they might also perform an abortion now and then. In the Bush White House, fetuses rank above women. Where is the evidence from the Shrubbery that the current administration actually cares about women as something beyond baby factories and war propaganda?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[pop goes the weasel]

13. I'll try to explain

It's a question of respect for women as a whole. I used the funding of clinics as an example of the general lack of respect for women that this administration shows. See, it's not just that they don't care about the rights of women in the Muslim world. They don't care about women in any world.

I wasn't even talking about abortion rights--I was talking about funding clinics. The Bushies are so focused on fetuses that they really don't care if women die because a clinic, which might be able to, say, remove a cancer or fix a prolapse or stop a uterine rupture or distribute antibiotics and condoms, had to close because funds were yanked. What is the death of a poor woman, especially if she is not an American, against the chase for right-wing religionists' votes?

You say that you don't think the Shrubbery are for the killing of women. It doesn't matter whether they are actively, philosophically, for the killing of women. In their actions, they are already killing women. It's time they were held accountable for their actions.

Some background on the issue:
Bush's Family Planning Funding Ban Imperils Millions in Developing World
Bush cuts the cord on poor women and their babies
Africa's family-planning funding drought

[delhurgo]

12. Yes, this is reason for concern. From what I understand...

...the same kind of thing is happening in Afghanistan. If these countries turn into Islamic Theocracies that will defeat the main purpose for us going to war. But you need to read this, from when Saddam was still in power, too:

The Iraqi authorities have launched a bloody campaign against prostitutes in Baghdad, Mousel and other cities of Iraq.
Squads including groups of Al- Baath party called "Saddam’s fedyee" and the government- made women organisation; the "National Union of women" execute this decree. While chanting: "Long live honored Ladies, Down with prostitutes", the squads behead prostitutes in front of their houses by 32 Kg foils (swords) and hang the heads on their doors or put them on their door’s footsteps. 80 women have been beheaded till now. In one attack executed by a man called Ali Hassan Al-majeed, 10 prostitutes were beheaded in Mousel. One prostitute woman was beheaded in Baghdad 52 street. The others in Al- Sayedia and in Al-Baya suburbs of Baghdad.
The punishment for prostitution was three to five years jail before this decree. The recent attacks are parts of the Islamization of Iraq by the government. In the recent years, the educational system, the media, the laws and regulations and even the faces of cities are getting more and more Islamic. Sadam Husien appears and acts as Khomeini did in Iran. He issues Islamic decrees, talks Islamic and his pictures in Islamic dressing are on bill- boards all over the Iraqi cities. And as experience has shown, all religious groups and religious governments start to reinforce their power by first attacking women; the weakest and the more venerable parts of these societies. Prostitutes serve this purpose perfectly.

Thats from this source:
http://www.penelopes.org/archives/pages/actualites/solidari/crois11.htm

See sadam was no angel re womens rights either. And it may even be worse than that article suggests. I heard an Iraqi womens rights activist on a liberal talk show (DemocracyNow) say that the women being beheaded werent even prostitutes, but instead women who spoke out or were causing problems for his gov't.

These new gov'ts arent formed yet, their constitutions havent been written, so I can only hope that your article isnt representative of the type of gov't Iraq, and Afghanistan, will eventually have.

[shance]

16. Unfortunately weve never been there for them in the first place

n/t

[jayfish]

17. Don't Fret Over The Publics Lack Of Understanding When It Comes To Iraqi..

culture. The administration doesn't appear to know jack about it either. Check out this thread from October.


Morans

Jay

[veracity]

18. I do fret....

Not understanding results in abandonment in this case. Iraqi women were about as westernized as any Moslem women anywhere, and this sets them back centuries. If that's "liberation"- let me know. The ignorance of Iraqi history and culture is part and parcel of the public's approval of this invasion and occupation. PNAC knows that....

[jayfish]

19. I Think I Should Have Used The /Sarcasm Tag

Make sure you read the part in the thread regarding an appearance by Don Evan's on Late Edition.

Jay

[Deja Q]

20. You missed Oprah, we're not helping much with India's women either...

Their men demand dowries of their to-be wives or else they burn 'em. And the wealthier the man means the bigger the dowry he thinks he deserves. Barbaric and anti-woman. Bizarroworld. And with many US jobs being moved to India... I'm scared for their women, that's the least I have to say about their situation. I wish they'd all have boys, which is what they seem to want - how they treat women as second class. Of course, their then utopia would mean the end of them after a few decades... I've never understood (yet alone tolerated) male chauvinism, especially when it's taken to such insane and vicious extremes.

When America gets involved in the rest of the world... when's the rest of the world going to see the pattern? Maybe the "terrorists" have? :scared:

[HEyHEY]

21. I can't think of one nation where cruel treatment of women...

Is being stopped by the UN.

[pop goes the weasel]

22. The UN

is active in providing clinics, in arranging for international dialogues, in recognizing and encouraging actual women to take leadership in women's rights, in promoting the education of women, in providing medical care for women, in advancing womens' economic abilities, in chronicling the status of women throughout the world and in many other activities. Considering that the UN is a deliberative body composed of many member nations that have wildly varying ideas about the status of women, they are doing remarkable work. So what is the excuse of the US when it actively opposes such work?

Women Watch (a UN page)
34 million friends of UNFPA