In Iraq, there is a piece of news that’s more exhilarating than Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds ‘trying to resolve tough procedural issues over oil rights and shares of seats in parliament’ and preparations for a landmark democratic election proceeding full speed ahead towards its January schedule.
The other good news, eclipsing the otherwise bleak news blowing in from the Middle East, is that Arab women are seizing their God-given freedom and rights. In Iraq, there is a major step for women that is phenomenally occurring. ‘Fifty women graduated alongside male classmates as senior officers in the national police force. In next year’s class there will be 100 of them. The jobs are among the highest-paying in Iraq. The majority of the women in this year’s class finished law school. There have been some women in lower police ranks, but they have not until now been eligible for the elite officers’ corps.
This move is a giant leap towards the ‘recognition of women in the male-dominated Arab world.’ Some observers are enlivened and inspired. According to Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, “Transform Iraq and it will impact the whole Arab-Muslim world. Change Afghanistan and you just change Afghanistan.”
Expert opinion concludes that ‘the political and economic repression of women is one of the significant reasons for the backwardness of the region. Successive reports by the United Nations have deplored the fact that half of Arab women can neither read nor write. Clearly, society as a whole suffers when half of its productive potential is stifled.’
Via The Christian Science Monitor
