Under the Saddam regime, unpleasant as it was, the veil was not generally worn by women, and the restrictions on women prevalent in neighbouring countries such as Saudi Arabia were not in force to anywhere near the same extent. It seems quite probable that this may not be true in the New Iraq.

Rather in the same way that the position of women in Afghanistan deteriorated catastrophically with the defeat of the Russian backed regime by the fighters (including Bin Laden) who had backing from Washington.