After al-Qaeda, Sahwa Imposes New Rules

It is has been known than the Sahwa (Awakening) militia has prevailed in defeating al-Qaeda in many areas in Iraq, especially in the restive provinces like Anbar. But with the power these fighters, who once were part of the insurgency, people’s regular lives have not dramatically changed. They are now subjected to fanatic power after the other extreme fanatic power represented by al-Qaeda has been defeated.

In a heart-wrenching article, Newsweek reporters Silvia Spring and Larry Kaplow reported on how these fighters are ordering people, especially women, to adhere to their strict version of Islamic rules. Even though these rules are considered moderate compared to those of al-Qaeda’s, one cannot but notice the obvious government absence of protecting people from extreme forces.

Some women saw warning signs last year when the movement was young. Suhair Shakir says Al Qaeda never got a foothold in her upscale east Baghdad neighborhood. But Sahwa took over anyway, and it has grown steadily more aggressive. One day last spring, Shakir was flagged down in her car at a Sahwa checkpoint. A young man sidled up to her window and asked why she wasn't wearing a headscarf. He twirled a pistol as he spoke—"like a cowboy, spinning his pistol on his finger," Shakir says. After that, she wore a scarf.

A few months later she had another encounter; this time the checkpoint's head man warned her that women shouldn't drive. At last she convinced him that she needed her car to get to work, only to be told that she could pass the checkpoint only during working hours, and never after 5 p.m. The harassment continued. Sahwa guards at the local gas station began criticizing her for being out unescorted. "These are teenagers with no knowledge and no education," she says. "They get their power and their weapons, and they try to control the life of the people."

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