More Women Now Covering Up In Iraq

More Women Now Covering Up In Iraq

POSTED: 7:49 am EDT October 7, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Mayada Chazi does not think of herself as particularly religious. She's more interested in talking about boys, reading English novels, or dreaming of visiting New York. But she has taken to wearing the head scarf of a devout Muslim woman.

Many women who bared their heads and dressed in Western-style clothes in Saddam Hussein's secular Iraq have started covering up - some out of Islamic devotion, others in a desperate bid to shield themselves from the torrent of violence that has swept the country since the dictator's fall.

Wrapped in scarfs and cloaks, the ghostlike figures shrink into the background, barely noticed as they drift past the bomb craters, sandbagged checkpoints and blast walls along Baghdad's chaotic streets.

Chazi's Muslim family grew up in a predominantly Christian neighborhood of Baghdad. Their mother was a stylish dresser who eschewed head scarves for herself and her three daughters. But when Chazi returned to her university English course after the U.S. invasion, her father insisted she cover her hair to avoid drawing attention - particularly from the gangs that have turned kidnapping into a lucrative profession.

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