Sunday, April 24, 2011

Is There A Place For Women's Rights In New Middle-East?

It has been a long time since I post, many events have been happened since my last post, the events that happened in middle-east one by one, Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain & Jordan, kept us staring at T.V . To see what is going in meddle-east as long as nothing to do in Iraq, just watching T.V. for most of our time like I say "killing the time".

It is like a wake up call for middle-east countries from the poverty, from the hard life, from the no jobs, from the corruption, disease, pollution, from people who are dying every day, simply because there had nothing to survive for, children out from school, trying to get some of money by buying candy or gum in the streets, or near traffic area, playing with garbage stuff instead of playing with toys, playing in garbage area instead of playing in park, or play yard, women stuck at home, unless if they have work because that will be a blessing for them to get out from the house even for just one time in a day, or live their days in home for cooking, cleaning, & waiting for the husband & nothing more.

But from other side, I think it will be bad for women, because of extremist religious groups, those who will take the role in government, & fighting against women’s rights more than the systems dictatorship, & that what happened in Iraq & Afghanistan.

I'm not saying that the dictatorship regime is the best, NO, but if women were having 5% from their rights or freedom, now they will have 1% or even zero from their rights, or freedom, from my experience as Iraqi, & Eastern woman, I can tell the difference before Saddam's regime & after Saddam's regime, But I would never ever say Saddam's regime was good, he was the worst leader in history, but, women at that time had the chance to get a little freedom, like wearing jeans, skirts even the short one, having a swimming pool day, but all that away from political field, away from playing a role in government because the regime at that time was represented by Saddam only, what happened after 2003, or in new Iraq, women are more involved in government, elections, & able to have a voice, but can't have that right in streets, for a young Christian woman like me, I have to be 100 times careful of what I'm wearing, than Muslims women, looking around me when I woke in streets, open my eyes, if anyone can watch me or chase me, because I don't put Hijab, or my hair is not covered, because in Iraq now most women are covered hair like 75% if not 80% at least, so, people will know the women who aren't covered hair are Christians or Kurdish like in North of Iraq, because many Kurdish women are not wearing Hijab, So, I have to be very careful, of course it is not easy, but every time when I hear something bad happened to Christians families I thank GOD that I'm still alive & reached home safely, even when we attended a mass in Sunday or attended a special occasion like Christmas or Easter, we have that fears inside but we are determined to go & attended the mass & praying for peace especially in Iraq & in middle-east generally.

Speaking back about women rights, can a woman today in Iraq, for example, putting headphone & walking in street? Or can she wearing a little short skirt & walking in street? -by the way, many people believing that clothes reflect their morals!- Can a woman being a mayor in one of our cities in Iraq? Or Can a woman being a Judge in our courts? Did we see a woman taking one ministry in new Iraq excepting the ministry of women?

And extremist religious groups taking a huge place in Iraq now, but what the Iraqis really need, what the women need, do we need a civil government or we will copy Iran's regime in the varied Iraq, or we already copied the Iran's version???