■"A Jeffersonian in Cleric's Garb: U.S. Pins Hope on Ally's View of Iraqi Democracy With Islamic Tint," by Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal, 17 December 2004, p. A12.
This is the face of Jeffersonian democracy in Iraq: a cleric by the name of Farqad Qizwini, who talks the talk quite nicely on both economics and politics, but then basically balks at anything that smacks of equal rights for women. Is he a positive force? You bet. Should he be encouraged? Absolutely.
We just need to be real on where Qizwini will draw the line: basically anything having to do with women's rights. Qizwini recently opposed the appointment of a female judge and is working against U.S. attempts to ensure women hold a certain percentage of positions in the new government.
So he's not perfect, but he is willing to withstand the many death threats he's received for even working to make some form of democracy work in Iraq as quickly as possible. Remember, women got the vote here less than a century ago.
Ain't pretty, ain't perfect, and when the push comes to shove, we'll end up holding our noses on certain gender and sex issues again and again.
Don't tell me this is a war over ideologies. This remains the same struggle it's always been—one over sexual mores.
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