"Iraqi women know that the enemy is not Islam. There is a strong antipathy to anyone trying to conscript women's issues to the racist "war on terror" targeted against the Muslim world. Most Iraqi women do not regard traditional society, exemplified by the neighbourhood and extended family, however restrictive at times, as the enemy. In fact, it has in practice been the protector of women and children, of their physical safety and welfare, despite lowest-common-denominator demands on dress and personal conduct. The enemy is the collapse of the state and civil society. And the culprit is the foreign military invasion and occupation."
Haifa Zangana, Iraqi-born novelist and former prisoner of Saddam's regime, Guardian, August 17
Haifa Zangana, Iraqi-born novelist and former prisoner of Saddam's regime, Guardian, August 17
We shouldn't expect any better from a man who paints Islam and Muslims with one foul brush.
ReplyDeleteHe's a nuanced chap...
In 1990, Saddam amended the law to allow "honour killings" to happen without penalty, amongst other measures to curry favour with Islamists.
ReplyDeleteIt's tempting to say "he's a secularist, and that guy's an Islamist", but it's not as simple as that.
I felt Zangana was giving too rosy a picture of life under Saddam as being an equal-opportunity dictator.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of Iraqi bloggers in favour of the US invasion of Iraq and don't blame everything that's going wrong there on the Yanks, DBO.
ReplyDelete