City of Widows

City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance by Haifa Zangana.

Ms. Zangana is an Iraqi political commentator, novelist, and former political prisoner of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

She is solid in her declaration that she, like everyone else in Iraq, wants the U.S. OUT OF IRAQ NOW. When interviewers respond, "But won't that create chaos?" Her answer is, "We are living, we have been living, in chaos for years already."

Further she lays out a very strong case -- and she is one of the millions of Iraqi women she speaks of here -- that the U.S. occupation has set back the status of women in that region a thousand years. She estimates that in Baghdad alone there are 300,000 widows, and likely a million more in the country outside.

Her interviewer wondered, "The picture you are giving of Iraq and the war is very different than what we are getting here. Why is that, do you suppose?" "Because there is no free press in Iraq," she answers.

He further says {Fox's sarcasm mode is now switched ON} with the greatest of sympathy and sensitivity, "Americans aren't really noticing these things. I suppose they are worn out by the war." Her restraint in response was remarkable.