Killing women in Iraq

Zeina Zaatari wrote an article in the Guardian CiF addressing the problem of a surge in killing Iraqi women and it starts:

“Iraqi women's organisations and international observers point to an escalating war against women in Iraq, aided by widespread chaos and lawlessness under the US occupation”

Link to the article:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/zeina_zaatari/2008/04/caught_up_in_the_whirlwind.html

First I don’t think killing women in Iraq is due to chaos and lawlessness but due to typical Arab and religious misogyny facilitated by chaos due to the occupation. After the fall of Nazi Germany German people did not go around killing each other or killing women but let the law take its natural course. So suggesting that killing women in Iraq is a direct by-product of occupation is an utter nonsense and what we need to look at is stories of honour killings in Iraq and in the rest of Arab and Muslim world even during the secular and brutal regime of Saddam.

One of the CiF commentators by the name Freewoman suggested angrily that Iraqi women need to learn how to protect themselves by even carrying a gun and shoot any man who tries to harm or kill them. I thought that is really good idea but it needs to be expanded more to stop those religious and tribal misogynists from killing women for whatever reason. I think it is the duty of US and others international forces to form local women groups, arm them and train them to protect women in neighbourhood. This is a similar exercise to arming local Sunni misogynists to protect their communities from attacks by the other misogynists of the Shiite militias.

Hillary Clinton and the obileration of the iranian regime

Hillary Clinton’s language of the US’s capacity to obliterate Iran if, in the next ten years, it chose to drop its home-made nuclear bomb on Israel is a language the Iranian regime understands/uses very well; it is called the language of intimidation; a language the Iranian regime is well-versed in and uses for the last 29 years in its daily oppression of its own people; Saddam used the same language for 45 years to stay in power, Mubarak of Egypt for the last few decades…etc. Also the Iranian regime love to push its luck to its favourite position “Being the victim of a superpower especially the US”. This political concept is part of what is called in psychological terms the self-destructiveness and is inline with Iranian mullahs’ push for every young soul to seek martyrdom the mullahs' biggest nonsense.

By no means to suggest that self-destructiveness is unique to the Iranian regime but a human phenomenon normally triggered by feeling unable to reach one’s potential as desired deeply. This fatal dynamics is due to the belief that something beyond us (can be others) stopping us from reaching our real potential. This feel normally plagues desperate young people and oppressive regimes take advantage of it to stay in power. But brutal regimes cannot stay misleading their people by simple games therefore seek varieties of clashes to avoid misleadingly the feel of its own and those of young people self-destructiveness via for instance developing nuclear bombs followed by real threats of dropping such bombs on other nations if the opportunity arises. To calm the spirit of the youth those brutal regimes play a major game of creating something that misleading injects some meaning into those young souls’ lives. One can see that clearly in how Palestinian brutal leaderships brainwash the youth to commit suicides through suicide bombing.

To save those young souls, Hillary Clinton and anyone else interested in stopping mad regimes like the Iranian regime from dropping nuclear bombs on Israel should be thinking of the democratisation of those brutal regimes through direct intervention rather than threatening to obliterate them.

Iraq’s crack down on religious militias

What we need to consider when Iraq cracks down on religious militias?

Today’s Guardian reported US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice praising Iraqi government and Prime Minister Al Maliki for the crack down on the mad and the misogynous mullah Moqtada Al Sadr’s militias. As someone from Iraq would like to announce publicly my anxieties on such exercise:

1. We need to make sure that Saddam’s legacy and its deeply rooted Arabs’ culture of political elimination is out the equation or we will fall in “Only us know the rights and duties of Iraqis and let us kill whoever disagrees with us or opposes our brilliant progressive moves for being ignorant of the Iraqi people needs” old trap of Iraqi and Arabs’ politicians.

2. Like other Arab countries Iraq would easily slip into the oppressive and sick authoritarianism if politicians are not coached and monitored properly; therefore a continuous monitoring and coaching of Iraqi governments for the next three to four elections is vital and essential to the survival of democracy. People may think that I don’t have faith in my people…. not yet.

3. Of course disarming militias is one of the vital moves, but we need to educate people that it is ok for women to dress the way they like and speak their minds and to depart from religious and common misogyny.

4. Distrust between citizens and governments is an integral part of Arabs' and Iraqi history which stems from the lack of protection or support of dictatorial governments toward their citizens. This has been the disease of Arab world for the last century and it plagued Iraq for decades. Therefore building new ways of protecting citizens and showing that nobody is above the law would help to break this eternal antagonism between people and governments and build bridges of trust with Iraqi governments.

5. We need to show Motada Al Sadr and others Sunnis or Shiites that they are not above the law but protected by law if choose to protest on abuses or malpractices by Iraqi governments through political means not physical elimination.

Ali Eteraz writes about the treatment of Hidus in Pakistan

Ali Eteraz writes in today’s Guardian on the treatment of Hindus in Pakistan. Read this humane account and how Muslims should behave. Link: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ali_eteraz/2008/04/protecting_pakistans_hindus.html

I must thank people like Ali Eteraz for been brave and courageous to expose these kind of daily inhumane practices in Pakistan and other Islamic states or countries with Muslims’ majority....Thank again Ali for such important exposure and thank for being so precise in categorising human's prejudice in Pakistan and other so-called Muslims' countries. This delusion of feeling superior to other religions is a plague and a social and religious defect which struck Islam by the most ignorant people "the mullahs" who continually brainwashing general public to feel superior to cover a deeply rooted inferiority complex. One can find that happening in Egypt presumably educated people influence by ignorant mullahs teaching children as young as 5-6 years old that Koran mentions how the Jews are related to pigs and apes, how black non-Muslims are inferior to Muslims and how Muslims must wash their hands if accidentally touched a Jew, Christian, Hindu..etc. One would find these practices in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and other Muslims' countires.

I lived it myself in Iraq when I was a child. As a young boy I used to have a very dear friend who as it happened be Christian. We got on very well and used to play together, my family never objected about him but the rest of society look down to Christians as lesser than Muslims.

We need more courageous and brave people who lived such horrible experiences in their own Muslims' country to expose such horrifying public perception of Muslims toward other people of different religion or creed.

What Iraqis must do?

As an Iraqi I am very concern about Iraqis’ inability to truly love their country and very sad for not stopping the destruction of the country through their nonsensical sectarian fighting which is aided by social defects and tribal and religious narcissism. I would like to say to those destroying Iraq to wake up and start building Iraq rather exploiting the language of blame to justify their inability to love themselves and others. Arabs’ self-hatred has infected Iraqis and influences them to just pretend loving their country but it is deeply rooted pretension. It is high time to get out of Arabism and Islamism and related narcissism and move forward.

I really believe that it doesn’t matter what the intention of the Americans is and whether to stay or leave? Iraqis can, if willing, to force America not by fighting her but by solid and persistent negotiation and assertion to build Iraq and its flourishing democracy. We need people young and old who are confident and prepared to take on the rest of the world and take the necessary steps to make Iraq the first democracy among those rotten Arabs’ dictatorships and stop playing the old Arabs’ role “the victim” and just speaking the language of blaming for their misery.

Five years after the liberation of Iraq & Anas Al Tikriti

SonOfLiberty is one of the audience on Comment is Free CiF on the Guardian wrote: “The only ones to blame here are the Iraqi's for not standing up and taking advantage of the help offered by us for a better tomorrow.”

To read the full article go to : http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anas_altikriti/2008/04/shock_and_despair.html

As an Iraqi I fully agree with SonOfLiberty; Iraqis should’ve grabbed that opportunity of been liberated from the most brutal regime and develop a better Iraq, but the stupidity of Arabs’ tribal culture gets them into a deep power struggle which they consider as healthy and good. The trouble with such culture is that everyone thinks and believes that s/he knows the rights of Iraqis for better living more than the majority of Iraqis and even better than the West which gave such a golden opportunity, this is typical of tribal narcissism. People like Anas Al Tikriti who are more interested in suffocating Iraqis under his rigid believes than liberting them. We need people above the deeply rooted tribal and religious power struggle to save Iraq and its people from the claws of Sunnis and Shiites.

Sadr's men of Iraq are just a gang of misogynists

On the behalf of the rest of good humanity Jonathon Steele and men alike keep suggesting that US withdrawal from Iraq would stop Sadr’s gang from attacking civilians and will lead to more stable country. OK let us take his scenario a bit further by letting Mr Steele know that Sadr’s gang are not driven by patriotic duty as he implicitly suggests but by the imposition of their religious believes as their graphity on the walls of Basra suggest declaring war on women using beauty products and do not wear hijab. Sadr’s men like religious Sunnis men are a blend of extreme misogynists and women haters who condemn first the beauty of women and worst than that if women demonstrate an equal intelligence and capacity to lead as men. So Mr Steele asking for US withdrawal may satisfy your left desires but will not solve the current mess in Iraq. So enlighten us with a more practical solution to a mess created by the necessity of ousting Saddam’s brutal regime.