Iraqi women divided about whether to vote conservative and lose rights

[Rose Siding]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - On Baghdad's college campuses, the poster woman promoting the parliamentary elections Jan. 30 is a pretty student with a swinging ponytail and bare arms.

She's transformed into a black-veiled grandmother on posters in southern holy cities. In conservative western towns, she's a young wife with a baby in one hand and a ballot in the other. Only the slogan is the same: "Your voice determines your future."

Women make up about 55 percent of Iraq's population and they're guaranteed a quarter of the 275-member national assembly after elections. Yet, as the posters reflect, they don't speak with a single voice, and they face many obstacles to transforming their impressive numbers into political power.

Women who belong to powerful Shiite Muslim political factions echo their cleric-led parties' calls for a new Iraqi constitution based on Islamic law, which, strictly interpreted, could limit women's role in society. Secular female candidates, on the other hand, fear that a conservative new leadership could roll back hard-won rights and keep women on the sidelines.
...
"We have to admit that men have instincts. They can't ignore a woman wearing beautiful clothes," said al Ubaidi, who covers all but her face. "I want people to listen to my ideas, not my outfit. I want them to see me as a human being, not an object."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10611350.htm

[Elidor]

1. How come half the population only gets 1/4 of the assembly?

Think hard, ladies. Think Taliban. Don't support fundamentalist madness.

[Babel_17]

4. Because ....

no sooner was "mission accomplished" then we had to start downsizing our expectations. While not linear that process has yet to stop and there is no end in sight.

The willingness of my fellow citizens to perform a mental disconnect over this issue and keep renewing this administration's "pass" is quite disheartening. Not to mention how creepy it is to see this Orwellian mindset get so full blown so fast.

[Merlot]

5. They're guarenteed 1/4 of the assembly

Do we have 1/4 of senate seats or congress, held by women?

[Elidor]

7. Ah, but I thought we were building the ideal democracy in Iraq

</sarcasm>

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[iamjoy]

2. So Were American Women

and we know how that turned out.

[FlemingsGhost]

3. Don't worry, ladies. Your men will be too busy levying Islamic law

to all the women U.S. reservists we are sending their way.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1137232&mesg_id=1137232

[bin.dare]

6. "I want them to see me as a human being" . poor poor woman, ..

... if only she could see herself as a human being with arms and legs and tits and sweat and tears and share and show it with and to others. "I want people to listen to my ideas" and so she "covers all but her face" and hides herself behind her "outfit". poor poor woman.

Liberation is about giving choices, if this is her choice so be it, but from my perspective, it is a very crude rationalization of the desperate predicament she is in.

[jdj]

9. yes, and men are "people" so women are???

dose even she know that they make up 55% of the population.

They may be a majority, but they aren't "people.