It’s not unusual for riverbend to move me with her writing. She’s in the heart of Baghdad, and that’s been a pretty terrible place to be for the past couple of years. In this recent post, she describes changes she’s seeing around her, as those who want Iraq to be governed by Sharia law begin to consolidate their power. As a feminist who has always valued my own independence, I don’t know how she will live with it. She starts out talking about the election:

I literally had chills going up and down my spine as I watched Abdul Aziz Al Hakeem of Iranian-inclined SCIRI dropping his ballot into a box. Behind him, giving moral support and her vote, was what I can only guess to be his wife. She was shrouded literally from head to foot and only her eyes peeped out of the endless sea of black. She stuffed her ballot in the box with black-gloved hands and submissively followed a very confident Hakeem. E. turned to me with a smile and a wink,

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