Posted on 01/05/2008 3:01:20 PM PST by ddtorquee
Umm Doha cuts hair and waxes eyebrows in secret from her living room because making women look pretty can get a person killed in her Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighborhood.
Hard-line Muslim extremists who believe it is sinful for women to appear beautiful in public have forced many beauticians to move their trade underground.
Sunni and Shiite extremists began blowing up salons roughly two years ago. They killed several stylists and bullied others into putting down their scissors and makeup brushes for good, all in an effort to stamp out what they view as the corrupting spread of Western culture.
In addition to beauty salons, extremists also have targeted liquor stores, barber shops and Christian churches.
In the past year, most beauty salons in the Shiite-dominated southern city of Basra went underground, as they did in the Sunni-controlled neighborhood of Dora in west Baghdad.
To those outside of Iraq, the prospect of being killed just for frequenting a hair salon might seem a convincing reason not to go. But despite being targeted by extremists, stylists say women here still want to look good — and stylish. Refusing to get a haircut or having their makeup done would be giving in to the violence and despair surrounding them.
"See this salon?" said the stylist Kifah, as she deftly lopped off a woman's dark hair into smart layers in her east Baghdad establishment. "It's never been empty, not through the Iraq-Iran war, the Gulf war or this war. Women are women, they always want to look good."
Despite her bravado, Kifah, like all the hairdressers interviewed, asked that her full name not be used because she feared retaliation by extremists.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Agreed.
The most feared thing of all by them are empowered women.
Democracy empowers women.
You would think that even the sickest terrorist would appreciate looking at a beautiful woman.
...Just goes to show, these creatures aren’t human.
And Holliwierd loves these nuts. Go figure?
Many of them cover their heads but wear tons of makeup.
And most Arab women develop a heavy beard, thickening and roughening facial skin and tooth decay by age 25. Now does everyone understand why Arab men prefer goats?
But they love to abuse them.
Here is one time the Islamocommunists have it right. Hairdressers are the root of all evil. They act as central information data collection points and rat out men that are having affairs with more than one woman. The gay hairdressers are just the worst. I guess a broken clock can be right twice a day.
It’s good to see some news from Iraq in the Drive-By Media. I thought they had forgotten all about the place.
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