Last fall at the Spirit of America meet & greet for Omar and Mohammed in Palo Alto, during the Q&A after their formal presentation, I asked what steps would be taken to guarentee equal rights for minority religions and women. Mohammed gave a long and generally satisfactory answer regarding minority religions but rather neatly sidestepped the issue of women’s rights. So, I prompted again, “And women?”. Mohammed smiled and offered (enigmatically) that women comprise over 50% of Iraq’s population. Not exactly an inspiring response, but I did not press further. Did this come up at all at your place, Roger?

(My husband wanted to know if I asked about Israel. I told him that there’s a certain protocol attached to this kind of event and I perhaps was pushing it enough without bringing in the Jews, but maybe I just didn’t want to hear the answer.)