No subject

freedom for women and girls than most of its neighbors. Created in the
1920s and, as a Islamic state, initially adhering to interpretations
of Shari'a, Iraq became a republic in 1958. At that point the
governnment legislated power away from the Shari'a courts over many
aspects of women's lives.

Even after Saddam Hussein became president in 1979, at war with Iran
and unsparing with political repression, women's access to education
and to waged labor continued to grow =97 mainly because the expanding
economy increasingly demanded their labor.

By 1990 Hussein was courting support for his war-weary regime from
neighboring Islamic states and from religious and tribal leaders.
Hussein's public embrace of Islam's moral authority changed many of
the laws governing divorce, child custody, and inheritance rights so
as to limit women's rights and freedoms. Laws restricted women's
ability to travel abroad without a male relative and reintroduced
single-sex education in high school. [...]

The deteriorating economy, social crises, and Hussein's courtship of
religious and tribal leaders were reflected in the government's
support of returning women to domesticity. A generation gap emerged
between educated mothers and their less educated, more conservative,
daughters. Young girls wearing the hijab became ever more noticeable
on Iraqi streets, motivated by many factors, not least of which was an
increased religiosity and changing cultural and moral values.

By 2003, then, the position of women in Iraq had worsened,
particularly for those who did not enjoy the privileges of class or
Ba'athist affiliation or the benefits of the black market economy.
Indeed, one might even have imagined that groups of women would
welcome American "liberators," and briefly, when Hussein was removed
from power, that might have been true for many people. However, that
moment passed quickly as everything that could have been done wrongly
was indeed so wrongly done.

Full: <http://alternatives-international.net/article170.html>


>
> --- On Thu, 2/12/09, Ruthless Critic of All that Exists <ok.president+nbs=
y at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> To recognize that Iran represses gay people and women's
>> freedoms, is
>> not "demonization". Principled marxists should
>> never stop criticizing
>> those who repress gay people and women's freedoms.
>
>
>
>
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