"They died because they were women and they made music"

We don't have to wonder what Iraq will look like when, if Juan Cole is right, we leave sectarian militias in charge of different regions of Iraq just so that, if I'm right, Shrub and the Shrubberies can look good going into the 2006 elections. We've already seen it. We've already created it. This is from Wednesday's Christian Science Monitor:

In Basra these days, it's not uncommon to see armed men from Shiite religious groups standing at the gates of Basra University, scrutinizing female students to make sure their dresses are the right length and their makeup properly modest.

Any woman violating their standards of Muslim dignity, relates Henan, a psychology student, is ordered home. ...

"No alcohol, no music CDs, woman forced to wear hijab, people murdered in the streets - this is not the city I remember," says Samir, an editor of one of Basra's largest newspapers. (His name, and others, have been changed for security reasons.) ...

One woman living in Basra says, "Before, we had Saddam; now we have religious parties and militias. To them, a woman's smile is a crime." ...

"Today, our society is changing, becoming more religious," says provincial governor Mohammad al-Waali, who belongs to the Fadhallah (Virtue) Party. "We must reflect that Basra is becoming a purely Islamic city."

A public picnic of Basra University students was attacked by followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, who beat and robbed students because men and women, the latter with uncovered hair, were mingling and playing secular music. Camera crews trying to film the event were also attacked. The author of a newspaper article about Sadr's movement received death threats because the article was accompanied by a photograph showing women with uncovered hair.

"This is a city where if you have a birthday party for your child, you could end up dead," says one Iraqi journalist.

As drama professor Thawra Yousif Yaakub relates, her sister-in-law Salina belonged to an all-female band that performed at baby showers, birthday parties, and other festive occasions, playing before all-women audiences only. Last May, the band were unloading their equipment on the street after a gig, when a man leaped out of a car and opened fire, killing Salina and another band member.

"They died because they were women and they made music," Yaakub says.

According to Iraqi officials, nearly 1,000 people - most of them Sunni Muslims - have been killed in the city over the past three months, with 100 murdered in one week in May alone.

CSM says "the majority of religious party members are horrified by these assassinations," but that sounds to me too much like those here who rage and yell about the "holocaust" of abortions performed by "murderer" doctors and then proclaim with wide eyes and wounded voices that they have no responsibility for, no connection with, those who shot down abortion providers.

But not to worry too much:

Many Basrans, tired of the increasing "Iranification" of their city and a lack of basic services, plan to vote in December for secular candidates, such as those headed by former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Oh, yeah, that'll make everything okay. Still, it is true that instead of militias, security could be in the hands of Iraqi security forces. As the BBC makes clear, that would be better, surely:

Nine building workers have died in Iraq after being arrested on suspicion of insurgent activity and then left in a closed metal container.

Three men survived the ordeal, police sources said, despite being left for 14 hours in the burning Iraqi summer heat.

They had apparently been caught up in a firefight between US troops and Iraqi gunmen, and were detained after taking an injured colleague to hospital.

It seems someone figured them for insurgents and called police, who staged a commando raid on the hospital to arrest the men when they returned to visit their comrade. The prisoners were tossed into a metal police truck while the outside temperature was over 40^oC (104^oF). By nightfall, eight were dead and three more were in critical condition. At least one more died later at the hospital.

The survivors were kept under police guard as they were treated and were taken away without being allowed to speak to journalists.

According to the Guardian (UK),

[a]n official at the human rights ministry in Baghdad said: "Under Saddam we feared and despised the police. What has changed?"

Only the excuses. Then again, that's not right: The excuse - "internal security" - hasn't changed, either.

Footnote: A flash presentation worth checking out is at this link.