So after blowing off steam with your statements saying women in Iraq don't deserve our help since they just aren't trying hard enough(!?!?), you go into a more nuanced statement about how its the fact that you are against Western imperialism, not really support for Iraqi women per se. Be against Western Imperialism all you want, I'm fine with that. I never wanted this war to begin with and I hardly think that it was US left wing feminists groups that brought this war. If anything the war has done NOTHING to advance the cause of women in Iraq or in the greater Middle East. In fact this war has had a negative impact on women rights in law, education and the economy in Iraq. But since we broke it, isn't is our duty to help those that we f****ed over. And if we are already pouring dollars into the country, shouldn't we try to disperse it equally and reach people that need it and can use to support good causes like OWFI (which is indeed a locally run group)? As far as broad based support goes, with all of the competing interests in Iraq, is there anything that has mass appeal (other than anti-war sentiment)? That Iraq was before the war a country that had fairly equal rights for women, high rates of education for women, and representation in various ministries and courts, doesn't that signal that there is(was) support for women's rights? Nowhere in the original article did it talk about implementing radical feminism (whatever that is anyway) in Iraq, it was talking about supporting women owned business, educational efforts and making sure that US money wasn't going to militia groups that engage in violence targeted at women. It also pointed out that the Bush gov't after making noises about supporting women's rights in Iraq didn't actually follow through on that by making sure they got funding, in fact they have done just the opposite by funding the religious militias and making deals with the hard-line Islamists to turn back the rights of women in Iraq. Not that I'm too surprised about that since this is the same gov't that said that we were in Iraq because of WMD, that Saddam was linked to 9/11, that this is part of the greater war on terror and that it would be a cakewalk. But if anyone deserves and needs our support, it's the women in Iraq, they got screwed over and then some. Although they might have to wait in line behind the Afghanis.

And I quote from your first post:

"What are Iraqi women doing to promote their own equality? As far as I can tell, not much...Where's the mass movement of half the population of that country?"

There are some very active women's groups in Iraqi, they have staged protests against the conservative parties in the gov't that are trying to repeal the rights that women had under Saddam and those that are trying to impose Sharia. They've succesfully lobbied and won (smaller than what they wanted) quotas in the new parliment. They were able to hold off a complete repeal of family laws that gave them those right. Women in Iraq have had (close to) equal rights since 1959 and were far more advanced in employment and education than other countries in the region. There are several groups like (Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq,Iraqi Women's Network) working to improve conditions. They have founded women's shelters, staged several protests agains the implementation of Sharia law, have started a feminist newspaper, and have founded local chapters to educate women. So why haven't they achieved equal rights? Targeted assassinations, al-Sadr's thugs going around and beating them for violating Sharia law, the US support gov't selling them out for a compromise between competing religious groups, the US refusal to staff a women's initiative office in Iraq, and trying to avoid being killed, maimed, raped, feed their families, etc.

I think it's disingenuous of you to lump all Iraqi women together, like the men, they also have religious and ethnic ties that are competing interests. Several of the women elected to parliment are actually hard-liner Islamists and would happily turn the new gov't into an Islamic theocracy. Are those women mere puppets of the conservative Shiites, true believers or just plain stupid? I have no clue. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to help those women that do work for their rights and are trying the best they can under horrific situations.

Where the author talking about working with women's groups to get representation in gov't, training for jobs and how they had a list of 350 woman-owned small business that were trying to garner contracts? It sounds like there was a lot of hard work and risk taking done by Iraqi women to regain some of what they lost when Saddam brought in the religious conservatives and then the losses they had due to the war. Iraq does have a feminist community and has had one for quite a long time. There are several reports that their leaders have been targeted by insurgent groups. If I remember correctly, there was an assassination of a female lawmaker and the female head of one of the ministries. So to say that those women didn't sacrifice for women's rights is rather cavalier.

If looking at a picture of an ultrasound is enough to stop you from having an abortion, then you aren't ready to have an abortion. Then again you also probably aren't ready to raise a child, but I'd rather that women think through their decision rather than add to the "I really didn't know what I was doing when I terminated my pregnancy" camp. Now I'm against forcing a woman to look at an ultrasound when she doesn't want to.