Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
Read this whole editorial. It's a horror story. I wish I could think of something else to say about it.
BAGHDAD, Iraq
A single word is on the tight, pencil-lined lips of women here. You'll hear it spoken over lunch at a women's leadership conference in a restaurant off busy Al Nidal Street, in a shade-darkened beauty shop in upscale Mansour, in the ramshackle ghettos of Sadr City. The word is "himaya," or security. With an intensity reminiscent of how they feared Saddam Hussein, women now fear the abduction, rape and murder that have become rampant here since his regime fell. Life for Iraqi women has been reduced to one need that must be met before anything else can happen.
"Under Saddam we could drive, we could walk down the street until two in the morning," a young designer told me as she bounced her 4-year-old daughter on her lap. "Who would have thought the Americans could have made it worse for women? This is liberation?"
In their palace surrounded by armed soldiers, officials from the occupying forces talk about democracy. But in the same cool marble rooms, when one mentions the fears of the majority of Iraq's population, one can hear a representative of the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the police, say, "We don't do women." What they don't seem to realize is that you can't do democracy if you don't do women.
they don't do women. ok, fine. i don't care if they prefer men (i really don't), but it still doesn't address the problem...
i wonder if Lysistrata could be done on a worldwide scale. i bet it would get their attention, make enough of those asses appreciate how much better life can be when women feel safe.