Iraqi Women's
New Battle Ground
By Rory Carroll
30 March, 2005
The
Guardian
Female
students strolled in the balmy spring afternoon through the grounds
of the humanities faculty at Baghdad University yesterday oblivious
to the watching man in black.
"There is a
fire inside me when I see them. You could throw ice into my chest and
still you would not cool it down," said Thi al-Faqar Jassim, 25,
his eyes following women with uncovered heads.
He did not know
who they were but knew what they were: flouters of his strict version
of Shia Islam. "It is not right, they should wear the headscarf."
Mr Jassim, a third-year
student of physical education, spoke not just for himself but for the
conservative Shias who hope to transform the university and, eventually,
Iraq.
After decades of
oppression the Shia majority is now in the ascendant and free to express
its version of Islam. More than a dozen cultural and religious associations
have bloomed on the campus in the past year. Female students say the
incidence of intimidation by classmates connected to Shia parties and
militias is increasing.
"We are afraid
of them," said Bashaer, 20, a chemistry student, who declined to
give her surname. The university authorities were wary of intervening,
she said, and her friends feared a repetition of a recent incident in
Basra when militiamen attacked and reportedly killed at least two students
who played music and flirted at an "immoral" picnic.
The education minister,
Sami al-Mudafar, told the Guardian that students and professors were
supposed to keep their religious and political beliefs outside the classroom.
Dr Mudafar is an
independent, moderate member of the Shia bloc which won the most seats
in the national assembly in the January elections, with the tacit backing
of Grand Ayatollah Ali Husaini al-Sistani. Many senior figures in the
bloc have Iranian links and want to write a new constitution guided
by Islamic sharia law, although they have promised to respect religious
freedom and human rights.
But secular factions
inside and outside the alliance have delayed the formation of a government
partly, they say, because they are worried that religious intolerance
will grow unless Shia clerics are reined in. Since the US-led invasion
toppled Saddam Hussein two years ago, much of southern Iraq has been
ruled by cleric-backed Shias who closed shops selling alcohol and pressured
women to cover their heads.
Unlike the insurgency,
which is largely driven by Sunnis, the challenge from radical Shias
is mostly non-violent, but it makes many Iraqis nervous.
Baghdad University,
the country's intellectual engine, is one of the battlegrounds. Yesterday
the campus was relaxed. Male and female students mingled in the sunshine
drinking Pepsi and eating crisps. Most men wore jeans, most women wore
skirts and blouses. About half had heads uncovered. Mr Jassim, a member
of the Mehdi Army, the militia of the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr,
hoped that would soon change.
Guardian Unlimited
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005