RE-DO
Have you noticed the sudden burst of colorful femanine dress in free Iraq?
None of TV's many "re-makes" have been so impressive. The colorful apparel, the wide,generous smiles, white teeth agleam, and a strange, lanky body posturing are all there in place of the drab, draped, veiled and bundled blobs we saw previously.
The transformation from sad Saddam circumstances and appearance to the present, is a somewhat surprising result of the recent changes, may of them still in process. One gets the idea the wearers of the bright scarves and bodily wear have had them stashed away for safekeeping but ready for just such a moment. Anyone with some bolt stocks of colorfull cloth could be facing a bright financial future. Demand, almost certainly, exceeds supply.
It has come about ,I think, quite naturally and I have a feeling it tells us something about Iraqi womenfolk which we might not have appreciated over recent years. My Grandmother, and yours, as well, would have parroted the maxim: : "Still waters run deep,thed that applies, in a sense, because the docile, obedient, subservient, cowering women of the old Iraq - now departed - is gone and we see a new, excited and exciting promise in vital, spirited, demanding women who are free to be truly active, alert and positive citizens in a land of new promise and challenge.
Since women in Iraq and other areas, have been denied educational equality with men in a formal sense, they have, it appears, retained a basic love of learning and have manage to pass such eagerness along to their children. It would be a sad mistake to ignore or belittle the potential of women in leadership affairs of the new state which is being formed. It is not being built on the wreakage of the old, but, rather on the wishes and dreams of people who feel sure there is a better way of life than living under a greed-structured dictatorship which has been their lot for so many years.
Look carefully at TV reports and you will see women among the men folk in the streets, where they were totally absent a few months ago. Most of us are so used to seeing men and women mingle in public. Some view may even wonder what make it all seem different; even fail to see the new presence.
Look for even more colorful displays among apparal choices in the new, liberated Iraq women and look, as well for the appearance of women among those chosen to manage the affairs of the new nation - not the foremost heads, of course, but lesser tasks which must be done well if the honored males inthehighes place are tobe judges as successful in their jobs.
Iraq's strength and assurance of an enduring future depends of much on a realization that both men and women are co-partners in making it all happen. For the first time in generations women of Iraq are now showing their true colors as nation builders.
A.L.M. Aprlll, 11, 2003 [c431wds]
