CarolC,

As far as I am aware the legislation and proposed ammendments, that you are so vehemently opposed to, are being drafted, debated, voted upon and enacted by your elected representatives. That process is, presumably, both legal and constitutional - so where does your accusation of "Treason" enter into the equation.

With regard to personal opinions, irrespective of subject, or location, everybody has got exactly the same right to express their opinion as they themselves see fit, period, no qualifications, no governing rules. It is equally true, and logical, in most cases, that the opinions of those participating in any discussion who are closer to the subject, by location, personal experience and knowledge, have more weight because those opinions are more likely to better informed, and more factually accurate.

MGOH - "And for all its faults and they are many, Iraq as a society is probably one of the least repressive of women in that part of the world."

Really? How does that equate with this?

"Under Saddam Hussein's regime women lack even the basic right to life. A 1990 decree allows male relatives to kill a female relative in the name of honour without punishment."

Summary executions, without the remotest pretence of any judicial process. Torture and rape of female relatives of people held in custody. Sytematic torture and rape of female prisoners, with documented evidence that within the Iraqi prison service there are people whose job description is "violation of women's honour", or in other words, "a professional rapist".

I shudder to think what you would consider to be a really repressive regime.