Hayat, wife of Modi (moderate), Barma, wife of Mani (mainstream), and Zaina, fiancee of Radi (radical), are in the kitchen at Mani’s house, helping with dinner.
Barma: Where did the boys go? I heard you chase them out.
Hayat: They probably went down by the mosque to see if anything is going on.
Zaina: They were all reading the newspaper. What else could be going on? (Barma and Hayat laugh at that)
Barma: The newspapers do not really report everything. They are getting to be like the ones in Europe and America; they don’t report anything that conflicts with the policy or politics of the newspaper.
Zaina: What does that mean?
Hayat: It means they do not want to print stupid things that our people do, such as honor killings, or religious slayings. You know and I know those things go on all the time. A woman has a baby, and it turns out to be a girl. If it is born at home, the father takes it out in the desert and buries it, and nobody knows or cares.
Zaina: But won’t the neighbors know?
Hayat: The neighbors do the same things, most of them. There are some modern Iraqis who respect the national law and put the traditions aside. But they know that if the Americans leave and the ghoulish radicals return, they will be killed themselves for being anti-religion.
Zaina: How is that anti-religion? That tradition is not sanctioned by our religion.
Hayat: I know; however, the extremists do not really know the difference. (Zaina looks at the ceiling and throws her hands up)
Barma: I know the frustration, Zaina. We must persevere in keeping our husbands free of those people and their insane ideas.
Zaina: The extremists must be Neanderthal.
Hayat: I was thinking Austalopithecus. (They all laugh)
Barma: You see, Zaina, if the newspapers printed all that stuff about killing girl babies and circumcising females, some Americans will get the idea that we are uncivilized and will just lump us in with the rest of the savages here and just abandon us.
Zaina: But the Americans kill their babies, don’t they. Aren’t they savages?
Hayat: They kill them, but they are a little irrational about it. If it is even one day before it is born, they think it is OK to kill it. If they wait until it is born, it is then a crime. But they don’t care if it is a boy or girl, they just kill it because they do not want it.
Zaina: That is just as bad as our ghouls burying the girl babies alive. Do they circumcise their girls too?
Barma: No, that is against the law there. That sounds strange: they will kill them but not circumcise them. As soon as they get to school though, they seem to talk them into being gay. In fact, they do that to boys and girls both.
Hayat: It is not as easy as that. In fact, it is downright confusing to us. They talk to boys and girls in the early grades, showing them how to use condoms--that might be their morning class. In the afternoon, they have these other classes that teach the boys how not to be male and the girls how to be more masculine.
Zaina: What the heck kind of country is that?
Barma: It is very confusing. Many people do not want the schools to teach their kids because they do not want their boys coming home wanting to wear dresses and their girls planning to rob banks. But some of the states force the kids to go.
Zaina: Remind me never to emigrate to America, no matter how bad it gets here.
Barma: If the real Americans leave, most of us will probably die within the first few days. Well, Radi and I might survive, but if I do, Radi will make my life not worth living.
Hayat: How did you come to that conclusion?
Zaina: Radi is still a radical. He believes that nonsense that Zawahiri and Osama bin Stupid continually hand out. He says he would set the date if I would wear the abaya, hijab, and niqa. I told him to get lost.
Hayat: Good for you. It is bad enough that was yesterday’s garb. Today it has no place in our society. It is a symbol of male supremacy. Whoever wears it serves notice to the world that she agrees with the concept that males have rights over her and she has none. Of course, after saying that, I realize that some women--me included--must wear it at times to keep from getting beaten or killed.
Zaina: I know it; that is why I told Radi to get rid of his Neander... mean Cro-Magnon ideas. I hate those damned abayas, and the chadors are worse; they make you look as if you’re wearing a laundry bag. (Hayat and Barma laugh)
Hayat: Many of the women wear them because at first they thought it was a requirement of the religion. Their men did not tell them otherwise.
Barma: Whenever they find out that it is not required by the religion, they continue to wear them anyway because their husbands will not let them out of the house without them.
Zaina: We women will have to have a conference and require all women to attend. Of course, we need a safe place to stay when we finish deciding how life is going to be between men and women from now on. And if the ghouls and fellow travelers bring up the idea of what the Holy Book says, we tell 'em, "You interpreted everything your way for almost 1300 years; now we reinterpret it our way for the next 1300 years." (Hayat and Barma laugh)
Hayat: You definitely will need a safe place to stay. You may have to go to America after all.
Zaina: How about California?
Barma: I am not sure that is part of America.
HJS
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