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Beyara moves on from radical Islamist past
A year and a half ago, Ari Askanda would have been risking death selling Western music and DVDs from his small shop on the main street of Biyara in Iraq's Kurdish zone. Now he even sells alcohol under the counter. This remote mountain region near the Iranian border was a stronghold of Ansar al-Islam, a militant group linked to al Qaeda and Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant thought to be behind a wave of suicide attacks in Iraq. Under the hard-line Islamic regime they imposed on Biyara, women were banned from any social activity, young girls were forced to wear veils and wedding parties were outlawed. Even smoking cigarettes was forbidden. "Nobody had a life while those people were here but now everything has changed," said Askanda, 28, smiling as he pointed to posters of alluring female artists adorning his shop walls. "I sell whiskey and beer, although not openly because people here are still quite traditional — but we have been liberated."Ansar was dispersed at the start of last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as coalition and Kurdish forces attacked their positions with cruise missiles and ground troops. Residents fled when the attacks began and many suffered damage to their properties. Despite this, some believe it was a price worth paying. "My house was destroyed by the impact of the blasts. We've had no compensation, but to be honest we wish it had happened earlier," said Dilwaz Assad, the female head of a new women's cultural center in Biyara. Assad, 37, now teaches literacy courses to girls forced to leave school by the militants because classes were mixed. The center, funded by a German aid agency, also organizes beauty sessions, sewing classes and social evenings. "They stopped us going out, so now we're enjoying what we missed. We use any excuse to throw a party," Assad said. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-16 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=43335 |