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To: Oeconomicus who wrote (157289)	5/15/2003 2:14:03 PM
From: Victor Lazlo	Respond to of 164684

For a fund manager, she sure has a lot of time to argue with everyone on SI. I guess the Fund has a really low turnover rate! Member 9064351

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (157289)	5/15/2003 3:11:05 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164684

Find a role for women in rebuilding Iraq By Laura Liswood COLLEGE PARK, MD. – Iraqi women will certainly be better off without Saddam Hussein, but will they be better off in postwar Iraq? For the past 100 years, Iraqi women have struggled for equal rights, with some success. Women had held 20 percent of Iraq's parliamentary seats in recent history- more than the 14 percent held by women in the US Congress, and far greater than the 3.5 percent average among Arab states. Iraqi women historically had the right to vote, drive, work, be educated, and dress as they please. They once pursued the same professions and salaries as Iraqi men. And they received five years of maternity leave from their employers, a benefit American women can only dream of. But last month, six very worried Iraqi women leaders met with Secretary of State Colin Powell to share their concerns about two looming threats to the near-parity they once had with men and to the establishment of a true Middle Eastern democracy. The first threat is one of exclusion. Right now, it seems that women's voices in the postwar reconstruction process may not be heard at all. The Iraqi Reconstruction Group, set up presumably with the blessing of the US and British governments, has only five women among 30 members. At a recent meeting in Nasiriyah, only four of the 80 selected delegates were women. Of 13 legal experts assembled by the US Justice Department to help rebuild Iraq's shattered court system, none are women. Women need to participate in this rebuilding at a level of critical mass. At least 30 percent of those involved - both at the local and national levels - must be women to ensure a real voice. A token few are not sufficient. As history has shown, women's involvement in the initial stages is critical to the eventual success of any agreement reached. Women in Northern Ireland, for example, played a significant role in maintaining the Good Friday agreement because they were at the table. Women at the table in South Africa ensured that the country's new Constitution guarantees women equal rights and representation. And, if international law carries any weight in postwar Iraq, it's important to note that the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 mandates that women have meaningful participation in postconflict resolution, wherever it takes place. The second threat is one of extremism. The huge public demonstrations by certain sectors of the Iraqi Shiite community immediately after the war's end raise questions about what will happen to women's rights and roles in society if fundamentalists gain power.Already there have been calls by some religious leaders for bans on women wearing makeup and for taking up the head-to-toe covering of the burqa. Afghanistan under the Taliban is a short memory away. Should the extremists succeed in establishing a religious state, women could be denied the opportunity to learn, have access to healthcare, speak in public, hold political office, and participate in the economy. The United States would win the battle and lose any hope for a thriving democracy. But it doesn't have to be that way. Right now, the US, Britain, and other interested governments have the opportunity to erase the threat of exclusion and, in doing so, head off the threat of extremism. Women can help fight fundamentalist rule. Look no further than Iran, where women and youth played a major role in the movement toward a more moderate government. L. Paul Bremer III, the new US special envoy and civil administrator of Iraq, can ensure that women are equally involved in the rebuilding of the government ministries as he appoints or recommends Iraqi citizens to interim government posts. Beyond appointments, the US can use some of the $2.5 billion it has pledged to Iraqi reconstruction to ensure women's continued and enhanced empowerment. Funds should go for training women in political organizing, grass-roots activism, and campaigning. Access to financing for women entrepreneurs will stimulate the economy. Money should be spent on classrooms, teachers, computer literacy, and healthcare, particularly for pregnant women. Ultimately, the Iraqi people must decide their own fate. Iraqi women for decades have enjoyed greater equality and opportunity than women of neighboring Arab countries. It will be an ironic twist of fate if the position of women in Iraq is neither preserved nor further enhanced in this formative time. • Laura Liswood is a senior scholar at the University of Maryland's Academy of Leadership. She is the secretary-general of the Council of Women World Leaders, a network of current and former women heads of state and government based at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. csmonitor.com

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (157289)	5/15/2003 3:35:28 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164684

<<If the United States cannot restore goods, services and security in Baghdad within a month, the American military victory in Iraq may be eclipsed by anarchy, which might prompt some Iraqis to turn to Islamist clerics to impose order, two senior U.S. officials said Wednesday>> bayarea.com

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (157289)	5/15/2003 4:00:36 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

<<The new viceroy is L. Paul Bremer, a “terrorism” expert associated with the neoconservatives who launched the war. He is just beginning his stint in the Jumhuriyya Palace, far below Saddam's grim, stony visage. It is not certain that Bremer is any more fit to govern than his predecessors. “The US is not a nation builder,” said George Bush both before and after he took his seat in the Oval Office of the White House, a far more modest place than the Jumhuriyya Palace, built along the lines of Egypt's spectacular Khedival palaces. Bush was right. The US waged war on Afghanistan, brought down the Taleban, then left it to the warlords. It looks like this is happening here in Baghdad as well.>> jordantimes.com

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (157289)	5/16/2003 5:04:59 AM
From: zonder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

When you come back to your senses, read what I have written once more and try to understand that I did not say THIS: Iraqi women were better off under Saddam than liberated from him I said they were better off than in some other Muslim US-ally countries. Like Saudi Arabia. That is exactly what Kristoff said in his article that I posted: straitstimes.asia1.com.sg The question here is, of course, what are you doing to save those women? Or is "liberating Iraqi women" only an excuse to justify what is quite obviously an illegal invasion built on half-truths and disinformation? For example: Where are those tons and tons and tons of WMDs?