"Freedom on the March" in Iraq! No singing, cut yr hair, no liquor...

[holboz]

From The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501825.html

BAGHDAD -- The cleric's young men fanned out across the neighborhood, moving from shop to shop, posting the new religious decrees.

Printed neatly on white-and-green fliers, the edicts banned vices like "music-filled parties and all kinds of singing." They proscribed celebratory gunfire at weddings and "the gathering of young men" in front of markets and girls' schools. Also forbidden were the "selling of liquor and narcotic drugs" and "wearing improper Western clothes."


But at the bottom of the list of prohibitions was a single command. Scrawled in green ink, it read simply: "Cut hair."

"I feel powerless," lamented Moataz Hussein, 22, a wiry, soft-voiced teacher seated in a hair salon on the main road of the Tobji neighborhood on Sunday. His long, stylish black hair was now a recent memory. "They are controlling my life."

Amid the sectarian strife plaguing Baghdad, a wave of religious fundamentalism is curbing personal freedoms and reshaping the daily lives of Iraqis who have long enjoyed one of the most liberal lifestyles in the Arab world. The measures speak to a central question dangling over the future of Iraq: Can it remain a secular nation at a time when religion is exerting a powerful influence on every aspect of life, from politics to the mundane elements of society?

"You're doing a heckuva job, Bushie"

[Tanuki]

1. That $20 million "victory party" * wants us to pay for

will be a rather dull affair.

[holboz]

2. Oh geez - i completely forgot about that "victory party"! eom

[Sinti]

3. "Freedom" on the march here?

The U.S.-led invasion in 2003 ended decades of religious repression by the government of Saddam Hussein.

This isn't religious oppression? God, I feel horrible for these people. Get your hair cut properly, or we'll kill you. It's sounding more and more like the Taliban every day.