The elections in Iraq...did their women get to vote?

[SuffragetteSal]

I hope so, if not, then how can we say we brought them democracy if we didn't bring it for everyone?

I can't seem to find the answer...I did find this though...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/files/story2580.php

Building democracy in Iraq will prove impossible without immediate leadership from the country’s forsaken majority: its women. But while the Bush administration trumpets women’s rights in the Middle East, it neglects to back words with action. The failure to empower women would condemn Iraq to the fate of its Arab neighbors—autocracy, economic stagnation, and social malaise.

[Truman01]

1. Yes, women voted.

[cags]

2. but didn't they have to stand in seperate lines from the men?

[MeDeMax]

5. I don't know if it is possible...

to desegregate a gender segregated society overnight by force or with legislation.

for a starters both genders have to get accustumed to being in the prescence of the other without becoming too self conscious, after having observed centuries of being separate in public.

What was viable in Afghanistan is not necessarily so in Iraq, for a number of reasons including Iraq's geographical proximity to Haaj.

It was a bitter debate to get some women included in the afghani parliament when it was formed in '02.

What is perceived by the west as treating women equally, may easily be perceived by the Iraqis as disrespect or "infidelizing" of their people.

And I don't think it serves anybody's purposes (including the women whose equality is being sought) to have a shiite uprising, in addition to the current sunni one.

so lets smooth out the basics before we reach for loftier goals.

[WillowTree]

3. Not only did women vote...

....but I read that at least 25% of the 275-member national assembly that will in turn select a president and a committee for drafting a constitution must be women. This, too, is a good thing.

[leesa]

4. We have no idea who voted. We only know what our government and

their paid minions told us.

There could have been a 0.1% actual Iraqi vote and we wouldn't know the difference.