New Blog!

Iraq Today. Another new blog from Mosul by Ibrahim Khalil. He posts stories from his position in Iraq today. A few paragraphs caught my eye. Now before some stray haggler gets all geared up to bust themselves silly abusing me in the comments, let me just say that Ibrahim seems like a fairly optimistic (polite) and even trusting kind of guy. He is optimistic about a new government in Iraq, very glad to see the end of Saddam (frequently referred to as "the tyrant") and happy to see Ayad Allawi (Ibrahim even calls Allawi "prime minister") meet up with George Bush junior. Now, here are the paragraphs that caught my eye;

I thought that the immigration would stop after the last war, especially after all the Iraqis thought the situation would improve, and more than that, maybe some of those who left the country would return. But that has not happened. The immigration and leaving the country stopped in the first months after the liberation from the tyrant mostly because there was no way to travel and passports were not issued and so on.

Ibrahim goes on to say that he sees people still leaving, or currently considering leaving, Iraq.

The other two paragraphs that caught my eye were these;

Other changes occurred, such as the type of freedom for women. It is a large difference between Christian women and Moslem women. Before the war women had a little bit more freedom to wear what they wanted, but now they dress carefully for fear of offending the Muslim community and facing harassment.

As well as being fearful of how they dress, women, both Christians and Moslems, do not go out in certain public places because they are afraid of getting in trouble? Moreover, in some of Iraqi places like in some parts of Baghdad and Faluja and other places which the Americans are not there, the fundamentalist Moslems obligate all the women hairdressers and the beauty salons to stop their work and close their shops. They obligate women to dress in accordance to Moslem law.

It would be unwise to ignore observations such as these. I know it's unsettling for some, but history has a habit of providing indicators and all too often those signals are overlooked in preference for that which is more palatable. If i were night driving and headlights shone on a "left turn here" sign, i probably would.

New Today: 1
Total: 79