:
Wed/Thu - Dec 23 -

TRAPPED: IRAQI WOMEN = Yes or No?

This is the kind of Op-Ed piece that drives me up a wall. It reminds me of Camus' Imp of the Perverse. It doesn't really inform. It adds more heat than light. And it even prompts me to question the editorial judgement of The Guardian. Oh, sure, they want to show the "other side" of some vague argument. The Contrarian Position.

You, Dear Female Reader, were better off in Saddam Hussein's Bottle. Unless, maybe, his gargoyle-like progeny selected you to be kidnapped, raped, mutilated, tortured and killed... Or, you were better off, unless SH had you gassed.

The last time Literacy rates were checked for Iraq, it seemed to me that the Women's rate had dipped below 50%. Frankly, I have strong feelings about Illiteracy-- I have come to regard it as a form of Imprisonment.

So, tell me: Life in Saddam's Bottle was better, but for who? I can't believe that an illiterate life is better than a literate life.

Haifa Zangana, an Iraqi-born novelist, writes:

Of all the blunders by the US administration in Iraq, the greatest is its failure to understand Iraqi people, women in particular...

...Lack of security and fear of kidnapping make Iraqi women prisoners in their own homes...

+ But there is no indication where Zangana is writing her remarks. She seems to be writing as an onlooker at long distance. Maybe the passage of time has melted some of her memories into others, blurring the vision of her reveries which are already tinted with the rosy glasses we often use to in evoking the Past. This rose filter, we are told, is like a mental health band-aid that has the function of insulating us from re-experiencing past pains.

:: Guardian - Zangana - 'Quiet' ::

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Faiza Jarrar, who does not appear to be at all trapped at home, is busily kiting around the rest of the Middle East. (Didn't Iraqis have a tough time trying to get out of Saddam's Bottle in the Bad Old Days?) On the other hand, I wouldn't be sufficiently honest if I didn't at least mention that Faiza was also carjacked in Baghdad not so long ago. So, the New Era has been a mixed bag.

Faiza writes from Amman, Jordan:

This is the first time I visited Cairo, I always wanted to go there, for years and years, but the family, the business, and the various circumstances of life wouldn’t let me fulfill that dream. Now, I am so happy with it.

This is a good piece by Faiza, though a bit long-ish. If you have time, try to catch it. Or if you don't, maybe you can copy it to floppy and then read it offline at your convenience.

It's Faiza's reaction to Cairo. And her latest "take" on current World Politics. She's entitled to her Point of View ... Thank you for sharing :-)

:: Faiza's Dispatch ::
-- Wed - Dec 22 / trans from Tues --

...