Personal Narrative Blog

Shanay Cogdell
WST 3015
Professor Nina Perez
April 5, 2010
Personal Narrative Blog

In this particular blog entry from Riverbend, on Tuesday June 21, 2005, she describes the events that go on daily in the city. Her cousins come over to wash clothes only to find out that there is no electricity in the mornings. This very article exhibits the overall sense of anxiety for the people because from day to day, there is an uncertainty of what will happen next. In the blog she states, “The Green Zone is a source of consternation and aggravation for the typical Iraqi (Riverbend)”. The green zone is where the US Embassy is located where separate rules, regulations along with government are made. Privilege between men and women comes into play because this exemplifies the Americans at this time given the opportunity to live a better life than most Iraqi people within the midst of destruction and turmoil. In Women’s Lives, it states “People in dominant positions may justify inequalities among and within nations with reference to ideologies of racism, classism, sexism, and national superiority (Living in a Globalizing World 376). The United stated is showing a perfect example of this by setting up shop and casting out the Iraqi lifestyle and letting them in. Majority of the “Green Republic” are men so women don’t have much say. Being hindered from other opportunities for the nation as a whole, it has become something that they are accustomed to with the bombs going off, and simply necessities as running water. Riverbend states, “It tells us that while we are citizens in our own country, our comings and goings are restricted because portions of the country no longs to its people (Riverbend).” Also, although the military system is a core element in the global economy (Women and the Military 508).
Major reconstruction has not even began which hinders the people let alone women who wish to work but can’t and if they do, they are given restricted times that they can work without much freedom. The patterns of women’s lives in Iraq are contextualized in terms of the intersection between the institutions of modern patriarchy and politics. No matter how it is culturally symbolized, it boils down to the simple principle: females live and die at the command of males, and males live and die at the command of the state. Although the dynamics of race and class create obvious inequalities within genders, the threats women experience prevails in the public sector.


Work Cited

Riverbend. "General Update..." Web log post. Baghdad Burning. Blogspot, 21 June 2005. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. .

"Living in a Globalizing World." Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 376. Print.

"Women and the Military, War and Peace." Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 508-209. Print.