Uncensored ArabWomanBlues

Layla Anwar of the blog An Arab Woman Blues can hardly be described as a shrinking violet - for example, here she is writing about Islamists:

I absolutely detest, abhor, despise, hate, the current Iraqi government. I hate the fucking mullahs. I hate Sistani, Maliki, Jaafari, Muqtada al Sadr, Al Hakeem and there rest of the smelly retards - all those sectarian Shia shits from Iran. I can’t stand Iran’s Ahmadinajad, Khomeini, Khatemi, Khameini...Kha, kha, kha, khara...(khara is shit in Arabic) I am totally allergic to the snake Nasrallah and his fucked up sectarian Hezbollah, who says one thing and does another.

But it does not stop there...

I am a fed up with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the Salafists, the Wahabists...

And I am talking here as a WOMAN. These bastards stand against everything women of my generation fought for.

Erm, yes, quite ... you get the point. So it may come as some surprise to know that she has come up with a new blog called "Uncensored Arab Woman Blues". After diatribes of the kind above, what on earth has she got left to censor???

If you think about it, the answer is blindingly obvious. In her new blog, the hard woman of Iraqi blogs lets out her soft soft squishy side. And Layla comes over as a complex, vulnerable, sensitive person that you really want to get to know. I am slowly becoming a fan. Here is her own introduction...

This is proving more difficult than I imagined.
It's as if there are certain "red lines," I am not supposed to cross, transgress.

On the one hand, I am probably expected to continue fighting the fight - for the most part alone. My other blog is completely devoted to Iraq, even though that was not my only intention. I guess starting this one is an attempt on my part to affirm my own territory, my own space...Only for me. Hence no remarks will be allowed.

The other thing that feels like a stumbling block and which am hoping to turn into a stepping stone - is that old voice in my head that keep repeating in an automated fashion "what will people say"

Again, it feels as if I have stumbled on some big taboo that I need to break down, or chisle away at, sculpt it and change its forms hoping that the final product, will be a piece of personal art.