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The message, it seemed, failed to land. Raja Habib Khuzai, a council member, said she had spent much of the previous two weeks pleading with the Americans to protect her or, if they couldn't, train the amateurs she had hired with her money. The Americans, she said, were invariably polite, but invariably unhelpful. The Americans could not find a better ally than Khuzai. The former director of a maternity hospital, she is smart, committed to building a new Iraq and even, despite it all, as quick to laugh as a schoolgirl.
Yet even her good cheer has been strained. In speeches in Iraq and in the United States, Bremer often mentions that all of Iraq's hospitals are up and running. The reality is somewhat different. One of those hospitals is the Maternity and Children's Hospital of Diwaniya, about miles south of Baghdad. Among other things, it needs more electricity, not least to power its ward for premature babies.
Before the war, doctors say, an emergency line kept the juice flowing around the clock. Weeks ago, Khuzai said, she pulled Bremer aside and told him about the ward. Bremer was moved, she said, and assured her he would dispatch an electrical generator right away. Khuzai said a generator duly arrived, but it was wrong for the job.
It was returned, and after some weeks, another arrived.
But the second generator, Khuzai said, doesn't work, though she concedes it might be her staff that is unable to make it work. Amid the bleakness of recent events, a promising moment unfolded in a ceremony in Baghdad last week. After more than a month of discussion, the governing council chose a cabinet, 24 men and one woman, to take over the ministries of oil, health and foreign affairs and make them Iraqi again. There were plenty of reasons to doubt the importance of the event. The ceremony was deep inside the walls of the Republican Palace, the threat of assassination evidently too great to stage it anywhere else.
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Ordinary Iraqis, the people the fledgling Iraqi government is meant to serve, were, for the most part, barred from attending. Yet one by one, the ministers stepped up to the podium, with the members of the governing council seated before them. Some of the ministers had weathered the worst years of Hussein's rule; others had returned from exile. By their resumes passed out beforehand, with degrees from Harvard and the London School of Economics, they seemed up to their jobs. By the looks on their faces, they seemed full of hope, whatever else might be happening outside.
Late last month, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared the end of major combat, surpassed the death toll of during the first phase of the war, which began on March About , American troops are in Iraq and Kuwait with 21, May 12th - L. May 19th - Four Marines die when their helicopter crashes into a canal.
A fifth drowns trying to save them. Iraq Body Count Project, an independent group, estimates 5, to 10, civilians have died in the war.
July 16th - Commander of allied forces says yearlong tours by American forces may be needed to fight "guerilla" war. August 19th - Truck filled with explosives demolishes the United Nations compound in Baghdad, killing 23 people and wounding more than August 27th - U.
Charles T. Caldwell, 38, of North Providence R. Joseph Camara, 40, of New Bedford, Mass. Both were killed when their vehicle was hit by an explosive device.
Staff Sgt. Cameron B. Sarno, 43, of Waipahu, Hawaii, was hit by a truck and killed while changing a tire in Kuwait City. Christopher A. Sisson, 20, of Oak Park, Ill. Subscribe Manage my subscription Activate my subscription Log in Log out. Regions Tampa St. Letters to the Editor Submit a Letter.
Nawf al-Falahi, a women's activist, says one of her acquaintances living in the neighborhood was recently stopped by the self-appointed morality police. The men around the checkpoint refused to let her pass. They ordered her to go back home and get a shawl to put over her head and shoulders," al-Falahi says. They can no longer wear shorts or tight tops in public, and must have loose trousers and shirts. Who is behind the strict clothes policy remains a mystery.
The Interior Ministry denies any connection with the policy but also has done nothing to stop the men in the neighborhood who harass women. The practice itself is in line with a trend in Shi'ite shrine cities, like Najaf and Karbala, to impose stricter observance of "hijab," a term that can broadly be used to refer to full Islamic dress.
Pressure From Religious Parties The change in Kadhimiya divides the district's residents into two camps. Judi, who owns a shop selling fabrics and dresses in the market, opposes the crackdown. So I ask those responsible to rethink this. I agree that women should wear hijab inside the shrine, but not on the street," Judi says. But those who favor the tighter dress code say it shows appropriate respect for the whole neighborhood as a shrine area.
One female resident, Rajaa, says that "if women come to this religious place they must respect it. If I go to a park, or a garden, or a marriage party, is it sensible that I wear the same dress as when I go to a religious city? Newest Newest Oldest.
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