I TEND TO AGREE with the thrust of this article, although probably for different reasons than the author. If women maintain rights and freedoms in Iraq then we have ensured Iraq doesn't become another Islamic theocracy a la Afghanistan.

Women in Iraq have no voice.

And the American government, to its shame, is not ensuring that they have a voice, and making them and their concerns visible.

It is absolutely critical that Iraqi women be part of shaping the future of Iraq. Toward that end, the American government should ensure that women are part of those meeting to mold the future and the present of Iraq.

Women should have, at the very least, the rights that they had under Saddam Hussein. Dictator though he was, he allowed women to vote and be active in professions such as medicine and law. Now, there is a justified fear among Iraqi women that they will have fewer rights, not more, under a new regime.