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"The Trouble with Women"

Slow down. Take a breath. I’m not going there.


It’s a marketing technique.


Where I am going is back to Iraq. I admitted in other posts that we didn’t know much about anything when it came to Iraq in 2003. Words and phrases like as-salamu alaykum, shukran, abaya, and afwan were as foreign as they appeared on paper. Even Sunni, Shia, and Islam were shadow features of our collective repertoire flying that Iraqi-bound plane from DC to Baghdad.


Granted, not everyone was as ignorant about the Arabic Middle East as me, but I’m confident in saying our collective knowledge was not very impressive. We learned on the road. Sometimes we succeeded. Most times, not so much.


Never truer than when it came to the Iraqi female population. The norms and rules of interacting with such a critical social sector required an understanding of the Islamic and Iraqi cultures that was simply, in my view, beyond our comprehension.

I captured this image of two females, wearing the traditional abaya, in

the southern Iraqi city of Al Kut.  Al-Kut had been a hot mess about two months earlier when the 1st Marine Division advanced on Baghdad. At that time, Al-Kut was in their way. The Marines removed it.


About two months after that battle, we found ourselves in Al Kut. On this day, upon the conclusion of a meeting with those Marines and on the return walk to our vehicles, these two caught my eye waiting to cross main street. This photo was another grab-and-shoot type effort. I did raise the camera to shoot, but there was no lingering around to perform optional light and shadow techniques if you know what I mean.


The Marines were also not interested in light and shadow techniques, particularly in public, and they expressed their vexation stridently to my face. I still have scars.


First, the abaya. Not to be confused with the Afghan burka, the Iraqi abaya is mostly worn in southern Iraq with the “hijab.” The abaya refers to the black gown; the hijab to the black head covering, or so I’ve been informed. It’s a two-part ensemble.


And pretty much one hundred percent black. Not one to judge personal choice nor critique fashion, I honestly had no opinion about abayas in 2003. I just moved about and did my job. Ultimately, however, it started to irritate me.


Second, the heat. Think this: The image is from early June. Al Kut often pushes 115, maybe 120 Fahrenheit on a good day in June. Now, let’s add some physics. Black absorbs light, thus creating heat. After seeing the black abaya pretty much everywhere we went, my small, Western, non-Muslim brain eventually decided this abaya thing made no sense whatsoever.


In fact, of all the extreme sights before us during that summer, including the battlespace detritus, the heat, the infectious odors, the unexploded ordinance, the thick dust covering everything, and the abused and cowed population, my vote was cast for the black abaya as the most extreme.


Fast forward to today when curiosity insisted I do the Google on why women wear mostly black abayas in some Islamic countries. Especially in very hot Islamic countries. In summary, I learned that the black abaya worn by Muslim women can reflect cultural mores, religious law, personal values, and individual choice. Those same experts break the question down further from these major aspects, but these four seem to “cover” most of it.


Okay, black it is. But allow me to dissect this. I’ve been taught to respect different cultures, diverse religions, personal choices. Understood. Doesn’t mean I can’t question it.


According to National Geographic’s Women, Peace, and Security Index, under the category “Inclusion,” eight of the 10 “worst countries to be a woman” are Islamic states or Muslim majority countries. Of the bottom 20 worst countries to be a woman, 19 are male-dominated African and/or Muslim countries. According to my again, Western logic, that data at least points a finger at religion and/or culture as contributing to the non-inclusive and abhorrent situations faced by the female populations in these countries.


Among the many things I am not; I’m not a religious scholar, nor an anthropologist. I do know something about personal choices and I believe these choices can be influenced by, among other things, the external forces of religion and culture. If that makes sense, it might follow that at some time long ago, someone in the External Forces Group laid a heavy glove on female dress codes and obliged the wearing of the black abaya. If you follow that, what does personal value or individual choice have anything to do with it?


So let it be written, so let it be done.


“Hey sister, it’s 120 degrees outside. Shall we don our gown of choice and take a stroll? Let’s abaya up to cross the street.”


No. I don’t buy it.


I reckon the choice was seized from the sisters thousands of years ago, probably through cultural or religious evolutions combined with the millennia of engrained suppression. Whatever. For these two, the choice to opt out of the black abaya and perhaps enjoy a preferable existence of any kind disappeared long ago.


I propose that their personal choice was eliminated and their values imposed. I also propose that this imposition was, and still is, levied upon them by men.


Maybe for the readers of today, your reaction to this revelation is something like, “Duuuuh.”


But this image is from 2003 and I was a dumbass wandering around southern Iraq. I did not ponder the question of the black abayas. I suppose I needed to digest it awhile. Chew on it.


After all that chewing, I still have no factual resolution to the black abaya. I’m not interested in a religious or cultural debate. I’m not defending a right or wrong way for females to dress. Just questioning the reasoning of real personal choice.


For is it not then that the trouble with women is…men?

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