Liberation...but only if you've got a penis....

NAJAF, Iraq, July 30 — The United States Marine colonel supervising the reconstruction of this Shiite holy city's government indefinitely postponed the swearing in of its first-ever female judge today after her appointment provoked a wave of resentment, including fatwas from senior Islamic clerics and heated protests by the city's lawyers.

Protestors, some of them women, accused Americans of invading Iraq in order to undermine Islam. (Actually, that's more plausible than Bush's claim of WMD.)

According to the NYT, the 45-year-old lawyer who was to be nominated, Nidal Nasser Hussein, has a history of setting precedents. She was the first female lawyer to work in Najaf when she started 16 years ago--now there are 50.

"There were demonstrations against the first elementary schools for women, too, but everything needs a beginning," she said to the colonel. "Don't just talk to the people who are shouting, talk to sensible people."

One female protestor insisted that a woman cannot be a judge because "women are always ruled by their emotions."

So, tell me, who would you prefer sitting in legal judgment over you?

One of these "unemotional" men, observing a religious holiday in the city of Karbala, Iraq, in late April of this year? (Those are self-inflicted scimitar wounds, by the way.) Story here.)



Or, Nidal Nasser Hussein?




Complete story here.