From the Fox News front page, under "Only on Fox News"
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Rabab Adood never had much experience with guns before she entered the Baghdad Police Academy. But now she’s at the top of her class … and she’s on a mission.
Adoos and her sister, Intsar, are two of 39 women who are now
enrolled out of the academy, along with about 2,500 men. Women weren’t
allowed to be police officers under former dictator Saddam Hussein but very few say they would have wanted to."The
word ‘law’ didn’t exist prior to the war," said Intsar Adood. "The
police officers were to follow the word of Saddam, which is not the
law."
Sure, there are a few Iraqi men who object to this, and the article goes on to say that they will perform office jobs and/or (wo)man security checkpoints initially. That will change with time.
From Nelson Demile’s The Lion’s Game, Chapter 45 (page 489 from hardcopy) and taken slightly out of context:
Khalil recalled replying to Boris, "The next century belongs to Islam."
Boris laughed and said, "You’ve been saying that for a thousand years. I’ll tell you what is going to defeat you-your women. They are not going to put up with your nonsense much longer. The slaves will turn on their masters. I saw it happen in my country (Soviet Union). One day your women will become tired of wearing veils, tired of being beaten, tired of being killed for fucking a man, tired of sitting home wasting their lives. When that day comes, people like you and your fucking mullahs had better be ready to negotiate."
I think it depends on how religious the government becomes. The shi’ite prefer that women be covered and dressed appropriately. So that would work in an office setting. But that’s a step in the right direction, none the less.
I hope so, especially for Muslim women, as well as all women.