Don't Be An Asshole
McClatchy is still on the case of the Feb. 1 pet market bombing. The story that the bombers had Down syndrome they have pretty well discredited. The U.S. is now claiming that the administrator of a mental hospital was involved in supplying mental patients as suicide bombers, though the link to the Feb. 1 bombing is only by innuendo.
"Mohammed Sahib, 23, said he remembered the bomber at the New Baghdad market because she was the first woman he'd ever seen there.
He recalled her exiting a gray Opel sedan. She wore a light veil over her face and a black cloak known as an abaya. Sahib described her as "beautiful" and said she was in her late 20s or 30s.
"Anyone who says she has Down syndrome is a liar," he said.
He said he'd asked where she was headed. "I want to buy some seed,' " he said she replied.
She walked away calmly through the crowd. Then, he said, he felt the explosion."
I never bought the Down's syndrome story for a moment. It was just too transparent.
However, it is impossible to believe that this was the first woman to be seen in that market or any other market in Iraq, so I don't get what this Mohammad Sahib was talking about. It doesn't make sense.
It is also - or at least used to be - VERY VERY rare to see women anywhere in Iraq covering their faces. One could go months without seeing such a thing. In fact, the general belief was that the only women who covered their faces were prostitutes. While it might be less rare now for a woman to cover her face, I believe it is still very uncommon.
So, the story if this "first woman ever seen in that market" wearing a face veil is really pretty odd.
Yes, I thought that was odd too, but maybe he meant in that specific store or something -- it might have sold wholesale feed or something like that. Evidently an editing error.
I don't know, Cervantes. About the only public places you would not expect to see women in Iraq would be in coffee-houses, which are traditionally all-male. Otherwise, plenty of women would buy wholesale feed or anything else.
I am glad to see, though, that the Down's syndrome propaganda has been debunked, although how many Americans are going to see it and reconsider?
One of the reasons I never bought the Down's syndrome story is that in Iraq it would be extremely unusual to see a person, particularly a woman, with this disorder in public, particularly unaccompanied by at least one family member. The likelihood of seeing two women with Down's syndrome (or any other sort of "mental retardation") unaccompanied in public is practically zero. I know here in the U.S. "high functioning" people with these types of disorders are often out on their own, and they sometimes go about in groups, but that is a very American kind of thing. Iraqi families are generally either ashamed or very protective of mentally disabled members. They might hide them away from the public, and if they do not they will never allow them to go out alone, especially young women.
PS In the McClatchy article, there is a contradiction. In one part they point out that "Women entering [the markets] still aren't patted down for explosives or other weapons." That of course indicates that women DO go to those markets (I guarantee you that they do!).
As a side issue for readers who do not know about Muslim cultures:
"In Muslim cultures, it's considered taboo for a man to touch a woman who isn't a family member."
That depends on the type of touching, and on the individuals involved. Things like shaking hands and even hugging, or kissing on the cheek is really quite acceptable throughout most of the Muslim world, though not universally. It depends on the individuals involved and their relationship (and to a degree the social environment - for example, with certain male friends, we might greet with a hug and a double-cheek kiss, and even sometimes walk arm-in-arm, but when we are at a function of the Arab or Muslim community, we shake hands).
Patting someone down is another matter, of course, because you are putting your hands on and feeling their body. I have noticed that even in this country of sexual freedom, and pervasive blatant sexual images, pat-downs on women are done by women.
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