Middle Eastern women's rights

This is my promised follow up to yesterday’s post on women in the news.
Today’s post focuses on resources related to Middle East women’s circumstances, very much in the news these days. In fact the rights of women now occupy a central place along several fronts. Many women and men are speaking out and acting, often at great personal risk to themselves.
It is a good idea to begin with Iraqi women's own voices. Two of my favorite bloggers provide very good perspectives: At Iraqi in America, Fayrouz posts from the United States with very interesting current news and ideas. And Riverbend is a very popular blogger living in Iraq. She posts at "Baghdad Burning".
My interest in women's issues has grown ever since I became an adult 1955. My interest in Middle East women came more recently. It was considerable enhanced after I read a great book: “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books” by Azar Nafisi.
If you want to learn more, as I have, about what Middle Eastern women say and do, an in depth a search or a bibiography is a good way to enhance your understanding. Here is one search, a Google list of books related to women in Iran. Columbia University published a good bibliography on Palestinian women’s issues.
The news these days has very much been dominated by Iraq's efforts to draft a constitution. And the rights of Iraqi women have proven to be one of the big sticking points. About.com posted a good overview on the history of women in Iraq and their current issues. The Iraq government recently did a survey amongst its people to ascertain how they feel about a number of issues. Here is the link on the Constitution committee survey results showing that Iraq supports women's rights.
There has been considerable advocacy related to women's rights in Iraq. The Organisation for Equality for Women in Iraq has an interesting site hosted by Muslim women. And a valuable dispatch on Iraq’s feminist views was posted on this Harvard University site.
To see the official policy of the US government visit the State Department here. There is a department survey on the status of Women's freedom in the Middle East here. At a related resource, the Voice of America site is also enlightening.
In addition to advocacy efforts, women actually go much further by serving in the military. Women's involvement in the army of Iraq is covered in USA Today at this link. And very sadly, we have lost Armed Forces women in the Iraq war; USA Today had the story in June, 2005. We all can honor them by informing ourselves, at the very least.
Take a step further yourselves. Follow the links I have provided. They might even lead you down other paths that build the energy so necessary for positive changes to happen.