Another Tragedy from Iraq

Scrolling through the blogspot site, I found something that makes this hobby seem so trivial.

For the last few weeks, the Dodger had been reading Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar NafisiAn exquisite account of the transition from overthrow of a corrupt secular autocracy into a fundamentalist regime in which oppression of women became a central and even mobilizing principle.

The Bush invasion and subjugation of Iraq lacks the legitimacy of the revolt against the Shah, so without those roots the current trends in Iraq disturb even more. Reading this blog is like reading "Reading" in real time.


http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

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Baghdad Burning
... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...


Friday, February 18, 2005

Final Email Change...Ok- it's final. After trying several different email services, I've decided to use
baghdad.burning@gmail.com
Please email me there from now on. Thank you.javascript:SquawkBoxCount(110873090959543535) -->- posted by river @ 3:24 PM



Groceries and Election Results...Yesterday, one of our neighbors stopped by the house. She was carrying a hot plate of some green beans in a tomato sauce. “Abu Ammar has some wonderful green beans,” she confided. “But you have to tell him to give you some of the ones he hides under the table- the ones on display are a little bit chewy.” I added green beans to the grocery list and headed off with E. to Abu Ammar. Our local grocer, Abu Ammar has a vegetable and fruit stand set up about 400 m away from our house, on the main street. ...

“And is Iran so bad?” He finally asked. Well no, Abu Ammar, I wanted to answer, it’s not bad for *you* - you’re a man… if anything your right to several temporary marriages, a few permanent ones and the right to subdue females will increase. Why should it be so bad? Instead I was silent. It’s not a good thing to criticize Iran these days.

I numbly reached for the bags he handed me, trying to rise out of that sinking feeling that overwhelmed me when the results were first made public. It’s not about a Sunni government or a Shia government- it’s about the possibility of an Iranian-modeled Iraq. Many Shia are also appalled with the results of the elections. There’s talk of Sunnis being marginalized by the elections but that isn’t the situation. It’s not just Sunnis- it’s moderate Shia and secular people in general who have been marginalized.

The list is frightening- Da’awa, SCIRI, Chalabi, Hussein Shahristani and a whole collection of pro-Iran political figures and clerics. They are going to have a primary role in writing the new constitution. There’s talk of Shari’a, or Islamic law, having a very primary role in the new constitution. The problem is, whose Shari’a? Shari’a for many Shia differs from that of Sunni Shari’a. And what about all the other religions? What about Christians and Mendiyeen? Is anyone surprised that the same people who came along with the Americans – the same puppets who all had a go at the presidency last year – are the ones who came out on top in the elections? Jaffari, Talbani, Barazani, Hakim, Allawi, Chalabi… exiles, convicted criminals and war lords.

Welcome to the new Iraq.Ibraheim Al-Jaffari, the head of the pro-Iran Da’awa party gave an interview the other day. He tried very hard to pretend he was open-minded and that he wasn’t going to turn the once-secular Iraq into a fundamentalist Shia state but the fact of the matter remains that he is the head of the Da’awa party. The same party that was responsible for some of the most infamous explosions and assassinations in Iraq during the last few decades. This is the same party that calls for an Islamic Republic modeled like Iran. Most of its members have spent a substantial amount of time in Iran.