The Common Ills: Iraq snapshot

Monday, December 20, 2017. The push to lower the age of marriage for girls in Iraq to nine continues, few Americans seem aware of how many Americans have died in Iraq in the last seven or so weeks, Hayder's getting praised for doing less than Nouri, and much more.

InStyle

Nov 20, 2017

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Diana Ross's Grandkids Adorably Crash the Stage During Her AMAs Performance Ashlee Simpson and Evan Ross's daughter is too cute.

InStyle

Nov 20, 2017

Last night, Diana Ross was awarded The American Music Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award.

As Kat noted last night in "Kat's Korner: Diana Ross -- a lifetime of great music (DIAMOND DIANA: THE LEGACY COLLECTION)," Diana has had 87 different songs in the top 40 of BILLBOARD's various US charts -- pop, soul, adult contemporary and soul.

Her latest album is DIAMOND DIANA: THE LEGACY COLLECTION (link takes you to purchasing options) and it was released last Friday -- it will be out on CD in January.

Various community websites have noted their favorite Diana Ross songs and e-mails have asked me to weigh in. I couldn't do a top fifty, let alone pick one favorite song. What I will do as we wrap up our coverage of Diana and her well deserved honor is recommend one song to listen to.

Some of Diana's best work was with Ashford & Simpson and that includes "The Boss." But I'm recommending the above for Diana's vocals which were highlighted and pushed to the front in this remix from 1994's DIANA EXTENDED: THE REMIXES.

We've covered Diana throughout this month. We've also covered one story in Iraq throughout this month, the push to lower the age of marriage to nine-years-old -- for girls only. This is slavery and don't pretend it isn't.

Dropping back to last Thursday's snapshot:

For the earlier attempt, please refer to the April 17, 2014 snapshot.

We first noted the new push for the measure in the November 3rd snapshot. Last week, Mustafa Habib (NIQASH) reported on it, Chris Harris (EURONEWS) has reported on the issue and Karen McVeigh (GUARDIAN) has covered it.

THE WASHINGTON POST becomes the first US news outlet to give the issue serious attention with Zahra Ali's report today:

The amendments apply to Iraq’s personal status code, which is a legal framework addressing family law that gathers most of women’s legal rights in matters of marriage, divorce, child custody, alimony or inheritance. One of the proposed amendments could allow child marriages of girls at age nine.

If approved, the amendments will affect marriage inside the civil court that provides legal protection for women from polygamy and different forms of abuse. It also weakens the power of the state appointed judge in granting power to sectarian religious authorities instead of a cross-sectarian reading of the law that decides whether cross-sectarian marriages are possible.

Iraqi women’s rights and civil society activists consider this proposal to fundamentally question the basis of women’s legal rights in Iraq along conservative and sectarian lines. Activists from different platforms, like the Iraqi Women Network, Iraqi Women Journalist’s Forum and Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, have pushed for progressive reforms of the personal status code rather than its questioning along regressive lines. An international campaign — launched by academics, activists and individuals (including this author) — started a petition demanding the parliament speaker and Iraqi MPs reject these changes.

Will Zahra's report be the start of many more from US outlets or will the others continue to remain silent?

Repeating, around the world, a global community has embraced the women and men in the US who have stepped forward in the last weeks to detail the assaults and abuse they experienced. That needs to work both ways. We, in the US, need to be supportive of those outside the US who need international support to avoid being abused.

Right now, girls in Iraq could use some support.

In other news, Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) reports:

Militia leaders will be banned from running in Iraq’s parliamentary and provincial elections next year, prime minister Haider Al Abadi said.

His comments come as Iran-backed Shiite armed groups have been emboldened by their role in defeating ISIL and as fears grow of Tehran’s increasing influence in the country.

“There must be a clear separation between political and armed groups,” Mr Al Abadi said during a visit to a voter registration centre in Baghdad on Saturday.

The prime minister also confirmed the election would be held on May 15. He urged all Iraqis to cast their votes, vowing that Baghdad’s central government would provide a safe environment for the elections.

That's neither progress nor news worth applauding. We'll get to it. The NEW ARAB notes:

"There must be a clear separation between political and armed groups," the prime minister warned on the weekend.

"It's vital that people choose the politicians that they want... The government's anti-corruption campaign requires unity of all Iraqis in order to combat this issue, just like our defeat against IS."

Abadi came to power in 2014, promising to rein in the rampant corruption that thrived under his predecessor Nouri al-Maliki.

With little progress made in stamping out graft, Iraqis took to the streets to protest against frequent power cuts.

Anybody getting the problem yet?

Iraq's already been through this.

Under Nouri.

But he didn't just say that militia leaders couldn't run for office, he made the parties divest themselves of their militias.

Have we forgotten that?

Are we so desperate to delude ourselves about 'success' in Iraq that we refuse to remember even the most recent of events?

Recent events we delude ourselves on?

Let's also include the number of US troops that have died in Iraq since October 1st. It's up to three:
Alex Missildine of Tyler, Texas; Lee M. Smith of Arlington, Texas; and Hughton Brown of Brooklyn, New York.

New content at THIRD:

The Common Ills

Monday, November 20, 2017

Iraq snapshot

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