Juan Cole

Veiling and Male Cousins Noted ignoramus Stanley Kurtz, an India anthropologist who wrote his dissertation on a psychoanalytic theory of Hindu mother goddesses and who knows nothing about the Middle East, has delivered himself of the theory that “veiling” protects male cousins of Muslim women from the competition of outsiders seeking their hands in marriage. […]

“Baghdad Most Dangerous City in the World” “We’ve had people Killed on our Front Lawn” David Enders, a recent U-M graduate, has been trying to run an English-language newspaper in Baghdad, but has run into severe problems of financing and of security. The Detroit Free Press says: “The news magazine hired an armed guard for […]

Lame PR Letters supposedly from US Soldiers Backfire on Bush Administration LEDYARD KING GANNETT NEWS SERVICE The Olympian Online WASHINGTON — Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours. And all the letters are the same. A Gannett […]

Baghdad’s Homeless Orphans Justin Alexander, who is in Baghdad on a trip for Jubilee Iraq, discusses a problem I haven’t seen others mention, which is the homeless children in Baghdad. He says they sleep in the streets, and he can’t imagine how they eat. http://www.justinalexander.net/ 2003_10_01_archive.htm#106580063475049673

4 Iraqi Policemen Wounded in Baqubah; Attacks in Karbala kill one; Pipeline, employees attacked In Falluja, a guerrilla threw a grenade on a passing U.S. military convoy on Friday. The Americans responded by opening fire. Three pedestrians were hurt, but it wasn’t clear if their wounds were caused by the grenade or the gunfire. Local […]

Army of the Mahdi on the Move; 10,000 Demonstrate Militiamen of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Army of the Mahdi spread through the slums of East Baghdad Friday, after two of their number were killed in clashes with American troops. A crowd of 10,000 angry Shiites gathered to protest the deaths. Al-Hayat said that the militiamen were killed […]

Northern Clergy Condemn Plan to bring Turkish troops into Iraq The “Union of Muslim Clerics” in nothern Iraq warned Turkey not to become entangled with the Americans. In a communique that the group issued, they said, “Scholars of religion stnad with the Kurds against the interference of Ankara in Kurdish affairs, and pledges to resist […]

Weblog on Situation of Women in Iraq Thierry Robin, a French freelancer, is posting on the situation in Iraq from Baghdad Oct. 8 – 22, with a special focus on the position of women. The site is bilingual in French and English, so scroll down to find the English entries. http://www.centifolia.com/

Spanish Intelligence Officer Assassinated in Baghdad Insurgents assassinated a Spanish diplomat in Baghdad, José Antonio Bernal Gómez, the Information attaché at the Spanish embassy.. They waited until his night guard left at 7 am, and struck before the next guard shift arrived. One of them, who approached, was dressed in the garb of a Shiite […]