Dress Right or Die
As a woman in a pants suit campaigns to become President of the United States, others are being killed on the streets of Basra for wearing makeup and not covering their faces.
Religious vigilantes have murdered at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city because of how they dressed, the police chief has told AP, and “dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior.”
As American politicians debate the future of the country we invaded almost five years ago, what is happening in Basra, “known for its mixed population and night life” under Saddam Hussein, is a chilling reminder of what we will leave behind, no matter how well the Surge works.
Can the sectarian madness we unleashed be negotiated away by Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad? The Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr controls Basra, but one of his aides blames the murders on “gangs with foreign support to destabilize the city,” while citing the “religious principle that says that wearing makeup and forgoing the hijab (headscarf) in public is a sin.”
“But killing them,” he concedes, “is a sin bigger than this one.”
When President Bush makes his next self-congratulatory speech about bringing the blessings of democracy to Iraq, someone should ask him about the women of Basra and remind Hillary Clinton what she may have voted for in the resolution opening the door to our doing the same for Iran.
Cross-posted from my blog.
4 Responses to “Dress Right or Die”
No need to go as far as Basra.
I’m pretty sure there were no women murdered in Basra prior to the US invasion. Let’s all wring our hands again over the extreme behavior of Islamists everywhere. Now that that’s over, let’s hope (and pray) that Democracy in Iraq will take hold and a taste of freedom will marginalize the extremists.
Democracy in Iraq is opposed by Iran, run by harsh, oppressive people, as well as sponsors of terrorism, likely motivating some of the harshness in Basra, and lately the Victim embraced by the Bush-bashers.
Killing women in the Msulim world has little to do with democracy. or the lack of it.
It’s a question of the constituion and of laws.
Democracy per se can’t guard women,as it depends on who is elected to pass the laws.
Tribal customs are extemely hard to eradicate.
Even with democracy and with the appropirate laws, villagers in India still marry off child brides in the dark of night and in secret locations.
There is no easy fix.