ISLAM NEEDS DEFENDING

And "free women" are the threat.

Sheesh.

"I am a free journalist and a free woman," she boasts, adding, like her colleagues, that the clergy and others fail to appreciate the media's newfound freedom.

"I chose not to wear the veil and nobody can force me to change my mind," says the 20-year-old who anchors at the Iraqi Media Network (IMN), a station run by the US-led coalition and which began broadcasting soon after the overthrow of Saddam's regime last April.

Sahar al-Ibrahimi, 26, nods her approval: "They should not interfere and we should not let them interfere," she says

Shiite clerics have recently voiced outrage at what they deem are "immoral and indecent" broadcasts.

An official of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) threatened the network with street protests.

"If you do not change your programs and submit to our will, we shall mobilize the Iraqi street against you. We shall mobilize the Iraqi street to defend Islam," warned Sadreddin al-Qabanji in remarks broadcast by Al-Jazeera satellite channel last week.