Are Iraqi terrorists afraid of women?

Though women are cattle for some men, these latter are constantly disturbed and agitated by mere cows. So when I hear of Iraqi terrorists insisting on killing Christian women if they do not cover their faces in Basra University, I wonder about whom to write on here - the poor women or the poorer men?

Before we blame these violent Iraqi men, I have to mention in all fairness that even in so called non-fundamentalists societies women are the proverbial soft targets. Women are always under scrutiny and in the focus of the omniscient �male-gaze�. So these threats that university student at Basra are facing are not to be judged as fallouts of terrorism or Islamic fundamentalism. Rather we must see such events as universal illnesses and analyze them as such. May be then we can at least somewhat calm the fears of our women.

TimesOnline UK reports the case of three women, one 21 year old Zeena and two others, were recently forced by Shia fundamentalists to toe their hardcore Islamic line and wear the �hijab�. It is of no consequence that Zeena had pointed out to her tormentor that her Christian Faith does not ask her to cover her face in public. Wall-writings both inside and outside the university warn women to never move without their faces covered in public. Some of these graffiti invoke God as a witness to this fair warning before killing the shameless women who dare to disobey this dictat. Advertisements which show women with faces uncovered are sprayed with dark paints in Iraq. Religious and personal freedom is dying. Shias are mercilessly persecuting the Sunnis, as per the report.

Pity all these, when one remembers the great Islamic scholars whose liberal spirit brought Humanism and the subsequent Renaissance to Europe. Islam is one of the world�s greatest religions and a very culturally rich one at that. But cowards are twisting it to their own perverted purposes. The New Chaldean Cardinal has been roundly trounced by these zealots.

It is only insecurity and the need to dominate which compel some of my brothers in Basra to misbehave with women there. Instead of threatening women, they need to visit counselors and receive therapy to help tide over their fears of intimacy with women. The problem is not with religious fundamentalism but with the twisted psyches of some men irrespective of religion, race and color.

The same impulse which leads an American white male to abuse his trembling wife is at work here. It is the very same impulse which made three young men in Assam enjoy stripping a cornered tribal girl in Guwahati is at work here. The animal in us has now shed off its mask in Basra.

When the Allies leave Basra, then the real evil will be out.