Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the rise of a Shiite-dominated government...

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZnCkP0LBfeyJAVTm6fjlcmGOiUwD8TE7EI80

Vigilantes Kill 40 Women in Iraq's South

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN – 15 hours ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday.

Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups that he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam. They dispatch patrols of motorbikes or unlicensed cars with tinted windows to accost women not wearing traditional dress and head scarves, he added.

"The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior," Khalaf told The Associated Press. He said men with Western clothes or haircuts are also attacked in Basra, an oil-rich city some 30 miles from the Iranian border and 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. snip

Throughout Iraq, many women wear a headscarf and others wear a full face veil although secular women are often unveiled. Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the rise of a Shiite-dominated government, armed men in some parts of the country have sometimes forced women to cover their heads or face punishment. In some areas of the heavily Shiite south, even Christian women have been forced to wear headscarves.

Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, was known for its mixed population and night life. Now, in some areas, red graffiti threatens any woman who wears makeup and appears with her hair uncovered: "Your makeup and your decision to forgo the headscarf will bring you death."

[acmavm]

1. Saddam was the only thing holding that country together. Which

is why he had to go.

[Toots]

2. Ain't Liberation Grand?

Iraq used to be a fairly westernized Secular Nation....But God put the USA's oil under their sand...Now we have one more religiously fanatic country on this earth..