Iraqi street fashion has been constrained since 2003, as insurgent forces specifically targeted women who did not wear hijab, and women who wanted to dress in trendier outfits normally covered head-to-toe with an abaya, as to not attract attention.

However, as the situation has stabilized, many women are embracing different styles. At the posh Hunt Club, western style clothing is considered normal. There was even a "Miss Hunt Club" style pageant, that brought forth all kinds of participants.

Contestant Samaa Sameer, 18, was eliminated before the final round, but she says the pageant was a good way to show her confidence. Her mother, who wears a headscarf, beamed.

Sameer says she can't wear trendy clothes everywhere in Baghdad, but at social clubs like this, it's just the thing. She says it may take at least five years before Western clothes for women are common on city streets.

Mohammed summarizes the change in attitude well, saying of his clients:

Iraqi women ought to be free to wear whatever they like. They should be free to choose hijab if they wish, or they ought to be able to express themselves with Western clothing.

In Baghdad, Hemlines Rise As Violence Falls [NPR]

[Arbil, Iraq; December 15. Image via Getty.]

Iraqi Kurdish supporters of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) shout slogans during a protest in Arbil on December 15, 2009 against a Turkish court's ban on the party. Iraq's Kurds slammed the ban on the main Turkish Kurdish political party and said it hoped the decision would not derail Ankara's efforts to end a Kurdish rebellion that has repeatedly spilled over the border. AFP PHOTO/SAFIN HAMED (Photo credit should read SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, November 24. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 24: Intisar Alobady, an anti-war protester, holds an Iraqi flag outside the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on the first day of The Iraq Inquiry on November 24, 2009 in London. Chairman of the Iraq Inquiry Sir John Chilcot will lead a committee of Privy Counsellors who will consider the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009, embracing the run-up to the conflict in Iraq, the military action and its aftermath. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

"We have a lot of people … [who have] lost their jobs, who don't have health care, even children that are in homes don't get three square meals a day. But this man sits with guards protecting him, he's receiving free medical, free meals." •  A recently freed Spanish skipper claims that Somali pirates are holding a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl hostage aboard another hijacked ship. Ricardo Black says he met both the girl and her parents. "Her mother begged me to take [her daughter] with me," he told a Spanish paper. • A New York teacher is suing the Department of Education because she claims she suffered injuries after she slipped on garbage, including condoms, that had been left on the floor. She's particularly mad about the condom bit (although there is no news about whether or not they were used): "They caused, allowed and permitted condoms to be distributed by school personnel to the students, many of which were opened during the school lunch period and thrown on the floor," she said in the suit. • Five high school freshmen were arrested in California for the sexual assault of two ninth-grade girls. Police say that the boys accosted the girls at school and groped them during a lunch break. • Forbes has compiled a list of the top earning states for women. Washington D.C. is at the top of the list, with women making an average of $866 a week, only 7.8% less than men. Also high on the list are Maryland, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. • Rusty Kanokogi, advocate for women's judo, has died at the age of 74. Kanokogi devoted the past twenty years to making women's judo an Olympic sport, an effort that was recognized by the Japanese government, who awarded her the Order of the Rising Sun last year. • The Virginia Military Institute is facing charges of sex discrimination. The Education Department first brought the complaint against the Military school in 2008, claiming that the "climate and culture" of the school was derogatory and discriminatory towards women.  • According to FBI data released today, reports of hate crimes against gays and religious groups increased sharply in 2008. The number of racially motivated hate crimes fell less than 1 percent, but there was an 11 percent increase in hate crimes against homosexuals and a 9 percent increase in crimes against religious groups. • Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, says women should ignore the new breast cancer screening guidelines that delay the start of routine mammograms until 50, because it would save money but not lives. • Senator Harry Reid says that right after the Senate's vote to begin debating health care legislation on Saturday, he got a call from Ted Kennedy's widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. "She believes that Ted was watching," said Reid. "I'll remember the call always. She of course was crying pretty hard. We both felt that he's watching us tonight." • Today President Obama announced "Educate to Innovate," a 10-year campaign to increase American students' achievement in math and science. It involves $260 million in corporate donations, a National Lab Day, and an annual national science fair at the White House "to show young people how cool science people can be." • A reporter for The Guardian visited an Iraqi jail to talk to women who have attempted to commit a suicide bombing. She found many have lost close male relatives, lived in isolated communities dominated by extremists, and felt choosing to be a suicide bomber made them special, even though they couldn't control much else in their lives. But, one detective investigating the women cautioned not to generalize because, "All the cases are different. Some are old; some are young; some are just criminals; some are believers. They have different reasons." • The late Sister Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas is one step closer to becoming a saint after thousands of worshipers gathered in Nazareth for her beatification yesterday. She helped found the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of Jerusalem in the 1880s, which continues to run schools for Palestinian girls in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. • Libby Longino is one of only 32 students to win a Rhodes Scholarship this year, but she won't be lonely at Oxford University: her boyfriend Henry Spelman was also selected. They are both seniors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Longino said, "I could barely hope it would turn out this way." •

[Radwaniya, Iraq; November 16. Image via Getty]

An Iraqi soldier stands guard as school girls gather in the playground of their school in Radwaniya west of Baghdad on November 16, 2009. Iraqi soldiers paid a visit to the school handing out school bags, pens and pencils. AFP PHOTO / ALI AL-SAADI (Photo credit should read ALI AL-SAADI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Baghdad, October 18. Image via Getty]

TO GO WITH STORY BY PRASHANT ROA— An Iraqi woman places a call to a broker on the otherside of a glass screen at the Baghdad Stock Exchange on October 18, 2009. In the run-up to a major investment conference in Washington, traders at Iraq's stock exchange pitched their ideas for where foreigners should put their money for the best return — banks and hotels. AFP PHOTO/SABAH ARAR (Photo credit should read SABAH ARAR/AFP/Getty Images)

[Sadr City, Iraq; October 16. Image via Getty]

A young girl watches a man dip his finger in indelible ink before he casts a ballot in a primary for supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to choose their candidates for January 2010 parliamentary elections, in Sadr City on October 16, 2009. The primaries are being carried out across Iraq, with some 650 people standing in the vote. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

[Baghdad, September 21. Image via Getty]

Two young Iraqi girls dressed up to look like Bedouin women are shown their picture by a photographer, before removing the outfits, at the Zawra Park in central Baghdad where people are gathering to enjoy the fun fair rides and other attractions as they celebrate the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on September 21, 2009. Eid al-Fitr celebrations mark the end of the lunar month of Ramadan in which believers fast during daylight hours. AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

[Baghdad, September 21. Image via Getty]

A Shiite Muslim woman prays as she and others mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in central Baghdad on September 21, 2009, a day after Sunni Muslims started their Eid al-Fitr celebrations. Eid al-Fitr celebrations mark the end of the lunar month of Ramadan in which believers fast during daylight hours. AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

[Sulaimaniyah, Iraq; September 15. Image via Getty]

Iraqi school children run on the grass on September 15, 2009, the first day of school in the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, 330 kms north of Baghdad. AFP PHOTO/SHWAN MOHAMMED (Photo credit should read SHWAN MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images)

[Baghdad, September 9. Image via Getty]

An Iraqi girl hold a bundle of clothes she has chosen at one of six centers in Baghdad where children who have lost their father's in violence following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq are given a set of new apparel to wear during the Eid festivities which mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, on September 09, 2009, in Sadr City an eastern district of Baghdad. The clothes are donated by a private organization that runs six centers in across the city. Muslims abstain from water and food and sex during the holy month of Ramadan which culminates with the Eid where people wear new clothes and visit each other. AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

[Baghdad, September 3. Image via Getty]

A little Iraqi girl runs around the house past her mother (R) holding a poster of her uncle, jailed journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi at his home in central Baghdad on September 03, 2009. Zaidi became a star in the Arab world when he hurled his shoes at visiting US President George W. Bush on December 14, 2008, during a press conference in Baghdad. According to government official sources Zaidi will be released later this month. AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

[Fort Carson, Colorado; August 18. Image via Getty]

FORT CARSON, CO - AUGUST 18: Kendra Kaplan, 5 months pregnant, watches as her husband Staff Sgt. Joshua Kaplan and fellow U.S. Army soldiers arrive on August 18, 2009 in Fort Carson, Colorado. She had brought a sealed envelope with an ultrasound, so that they could learn the baby's gender together upon Joshua's arrival. The Kaplans will be having a baby boy, concieved during Joshua's mid-term leave in March. Approximately 575 soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat team from the 4th Infantry Division returned Tuesday following a 12 month deployment to Iraq. At lower left is their son Ayden, 3. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

[Baghdad, August 18. Image via Getty]

An Iraqi girl offers US soldiers sweets as they stand guard during the inauguration of a US-funded project to support small businesses in a northeastern suburb of Baghdad on August 18, 2009. US President Barack Obama warned on August 17 that Iraqis would be tested by more 'senseless' violence but vowed the United States would meet its deadline to pull out all troops by the end of 2011. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

A combination of wrestling/grappling; boxing; kickboxing/Muay Thai; and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Some may call it "cagefighting"; some may call it brutal, but MMA is a sport, with training, rules and referees. And for women, traditionally the "delicate" and "weaker" sex, to not only be represented — but headline — is a big deal.

Saturday's Washington Post had a story about more women and girls entering into amateur boxing; earlier this month, the Times covered an all-female wrestling team, the first ever in Iraq. If you thought of these sports as being fueled by testosterone, it may be time to rethink.

The MMA matchup Saturday night was between Gina Carano, an American, and the intimidating Cris "Cyborg" Santos of Brazil. In a lengthy New York Times profile a couple of weeks ago, Carano was described as being "a defining figure at a defining moment for her sport — cast as part suffragette, part test case, part marketing ploy and part crossover star." She's strong, she's gorgeous, and she could make MMA — which is already a huge business — even more mainstream.

Unfortunately, Carano lost the fight, and didn't even make it past the first round. But in a pre-taped interview, when asked why she wanted to take on Cyborg, Carano said, "Because she's the best."

Christy Halbert, a coach of the national women's boxing team, who campaigned to have her boxers accepted alongside men in the 2012 Olympic Games (which is happening!), told the Times: "Any exposure of women combatants is probably good exposure in general." And Ken Hershman, the general manager for sports programming at Showtime (which aired the bout) said that Carano would face "a lot of pressure, but that's the way it should be, right, if you're going to headline?"

These women are passionate. Cris Cyborg once famously choked out an interviewer just to prove she could; and when Gina Carano spoke to the Times, her motivation and dedication were evident:

"I want it to be easier for other females to be able to walk into a gym and train, because it changed my life," she said. "I live in Las Vegas, where it's difficult to meet a gentleman who doesn't think of you as a stripper or a piece of meat. I like the training and the lifestyle. I get to wake up and focus on myself and being better. It eliminates all the drama when you have to think about somebody punching you and taking your head off."

It's clear that it's not about winning or losing, but about reveling in her strength and doing her best.

First Women's Main Event [NY Times]
From ‘Gladiator' To Headliner, Carano Has Chokehold On Fame [NY Times]
A Ring of One's Own [WaPo]
Female Iraqis Take On Tradition In Wrestling Ring [NY Times]
Women's Boxing Included On 2012 Olympics List [CNN]

[Image via Showtime]

Each woman's story is unique, but their journeys to jihad do have commonalities. Many have lost close male relatives. Baida and Ranya lost both fathers and brothers. Many of the women live in isolated communities dominated by extremists, where radical understandings of Islam are the norm. In such places, women are often powerless to control much about their lives; they cannot choose whom they marry, how many children to have or whether they can go to school beyond the primary years. Becoming a suicide bomber is a choice of sorts that gives some women a sense of being special, with a distinguished destiny. But Major Hosham urged me not to generalize: "All the cases are different. Some are old; some are young; some are just criminals; some are believers. They have different reasons."

One thing stood out: The appearance in Diyala of suicide bombers who were women was entwined with the appearance of the Islamic State of Iraq - the local face of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the umbrella name used in Iraq for homegrown Sunni extremist groups that have some foreign leadership. While many insurgent groups operate in Iraq, those with links to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia are associated with suicide bombings. In Diyala, the Islamic State of Iraq was particularly strong. It was also brutal and organized. It orchestrated mass kidnappings, mass executions, beheadings and ambushes. No one was spared: women or children; Sunnis, Shiites or Kurds. Whole villages were forced to flee; others fell under extremist control. Many of the women who became bombers were from families immersed in jihadist culture.

Rubin's piece paints a bleak scene for women in Iraq, in an area that has seen a sharp rise in female suicide bombers from 2007-2008. More and more women, disillusioned with their lives and under the influence of twisted religious rhetoric, have come to believe that the best way out of their miserable existence is to sacrifice themselves - and to take others with them. Women, Rubin explains, were actually a good choice for bombers - the coverage of the abaya allows for greater concealment, and until recently, women were spared searches, even at heavily guarded check points.

Last September, the Iraqi government completed training for 27 policewomen in Diyala. The effort came too late to save at least 130 people and probably more who have died in the province in suicide bombings carried out by women.

When Rubin arrives at the prison where Baida is detained, she sits with rapt attention, taking notes on her story, looking for the answer to the persistent question: why? Why would someone do this?

She began in a soft voice: "My name is Baida Abdul Karim al-Shammari, and I am from New Baquba near the general hospital. I am one of eight children; five were killed. The police raided our home. It was a half-hour before dawn during Ramadan. The Americans were with them."

She added with a touch of pride: "My brothers were mujahideen. They made I.E.D.'s." The word "mujahideen" means holy fighters and, in the context of Iraq, they are fighters against the infidels, the Americans. I.E.D.'s are improvised explosive devices.

She told me she helped make such devices, going to the market to buy wire and other bomb parts and working at putting bombs together. Men are routinely paid for such work; women are generally paid too, but less. Baida was proud to be a volunteer. "I knew we were fighting against the Americans and they are the occupation," she told me. "We are doing it for God's sake. We are doing it as jihad."

While Baida credits her leanings to her family, she also admits she is motivated by revenge:

Later it would be revenge for the deaths of her father and four brothers in what she said was a joint American-Iraqi raid on their home, but at first it was more general. She told me she watched the Americans shoot a neighbor in 2005, and she replayed the image over and over in her mind: "I saw him running toward them, and then they shot him in the neck. I still see him. I still remember how he fell when the Americans shot him and I saw him clawing on the ground in the dust before his soul left his body. After that I began to help with making the improvised explosive devices."

However, Rubin cagily illustrates other reasons why Baida may have been so ready to check out of this existence with hope of a better one in the next:

Baida grew up shuttling between Baquba, which is the provincial capital of Diyala, and Husayba, a town on the Syrian border. She went to school through eighth grade, she told me, and had ideas of becoming an architect, but her mother wanted her to stay home. When Baida was 17, her mother died, and a few months later, at her father's behest, Baida married. Almost immediately she knew she had made a mistake. A week after her wedding, according to Baida, her husband threw a cup of cream at her head; soon, beatings became regular. She smiled sweetly and shrugged: "His hand got used to beating me."

However, Baida seems completely disconnected from these events, as well as her husband:

She appeared to have let go of most earthly ties. A mother of two boys and a girl, all under 8, she had not seen them since her arrest last year. When I asked if they missed her, she said, almost airily, "Allah will take care of them." She spoke as if much of her life was already in the past. When she mentioned her husband, whom she actively hated, she used the past tense. She was living for that moment that some might see as an ending but for her would be a moment of transformation.

"As soon as I get out I will explode myself against the invaders," she told me.

As the interview continues, Rubin starts noticing an interesting deployment of logic Baida uses to fell okay about the murders she is about to commit. In a complicated discussion of what is haram and what is not, Baida explains how she reconcile the deaths of some, but not others:

It was certainly important to Baida, who felt she controlled little in her life, to feel in control of her death. Her goal was to take revenge on her brothers' killers - American soldiers. When I brought up the reality that the vast majority of suicide bombings in Iraq kill ordinary Iraqis, she would only say that she thought killing Iraqis was haram, or forbidden.

Baida explains:

You could choose whether you wanted to do it. They wanted me to wear the explosive belt against the police, but I refused. I said, ‘I will not do it against Iraqis.' I said: ‘If I do it against the police I will go to hell because the police are Muslims. But if I do it against the Americans then I will go to heaven.' "

A few weeks later, when I [Rubin] met Baida again, she tried to explain to me the line dividing when it is halal (permitted) to kill a person and when it is forbidden. She said she followed the rules of her group, but her cousins had different rules: they would kill anybody. Was there a difference, I wondered, between killing American soldiers and killing American civilians, like reconstruction workers? No, she said: "I am willing to explode them, even civilians, because they are invaders and blasphemers and Jewish. I will explode them first because they are Jewish and because they feel free to take our lands."

My interpreter asked where she stood: Was it halal to kill her?

"We consider you a spy, working with them," Baida said.

Baida did not believe it was halal, however, to kill members of the Iraqi security forces if they were working on their own, only if they were in a convoy with the Americans.

As the Rubin's narrative gets darker and darker, she also illuminates how the idea of a "choice" is one that is difficult to apply in these situations:

Her choice of suicide was not entirely hers to make. The suicide vests the cell gave to participants were outfitted with remote detonators so that someone else could explode the would-be bomber if she somehow failed to do it herself. This was a relatively new aspect of suicide bombing in Iraq. A second person, with a second detonator, would go on the mission to ensure against changes of heart. "One day this woman, Shaima, said, ‘I am ready.' I saw Shaima when they put the vest on her. It was very heavy. With Shaima, they exploded her, she did not explode herself. There were five or six killed."

At some point in the story, Baida is transferred to a mental hospital for evaluation. In the meantime, Rubin travels to other areas with high levels of women bombers. Extreme adherence to even the smallest points of religious dogma creates an environment where it is almost as if the people live in a time warp:

Until 2007, it was too dangerous for the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police to enter the area. When they finally did, they found a strange community. "When we entered Makhisa we didn't find a TV because it's forbidden," Col. Khalid Mohammed al-Ameri, who was in the army under Saddam Hussein and has served all over the country, told me. "And no ice, no cigarettes and no tomatoes and cucumbers mixed together at the same shop."

The strictest Sunni extremists believe that people should not have anything that did not exist in the early days of Islam. Since there was no electricity in the seventh century, there could be neither refrigeration nor ice and no television. The aversion to mixing tomatoes and cucumbers is because cucumbers are viewed as a male vegetable and tomatoes are female, and mixing them in a box is seen as lascivious, Colonel Khalid said, shaking his head.

When Rubin returns, she finds that Baida has been calling, looking for her. Under advisement from military and local police that Baida may possibly be plotting to murder her as well, Rubin elects to keep future meetings short. The author's nervousness is palpable here - we have previously been informed that Baida had access to a cell phone while in prison and the mental hospital, and she stays in close contact with the members of her group. In addition, military operatives had warned that other journalists had died in similar ways, around the time when Baida began pressing for exact time and locations of Rubin's visits.

When we did finally go, we met with Baida alone, sitting together on a bed in the nurse's office because there were no chairs. I asked her gently, and as nonjudgmentally as I could, whether she wanted to kill me because I was a foreigner.

"Frankly, yes." Then she added, to soften it, "Not specifically you, because I know you."

Would she tell her extremist cousins or her friends about me? Would she give them my description and tell them enough that they could find me?

"I won't sacrifice my friendship," she said. A moment later she reversed herself. "But, if they insisted, yes, I would, yes. As a foreigner it is halal to kill you."

She continued: "If they kill Americans they will do a big huge banquet for dinner."

She smiled beatifically. As Major Hosham had said, "She is honest."

Rubin offers no conclusions or further analysis at the end of her piece, instead looking to capture the environment. Perhaps this is because there ultimately is no rhyme or reason for undertaking these horrific acts, that violate most religious principles and moral obligations. Baida's last words confirm this point:

I looked at my watch; I worried we had stayed too long. I got up hurriedly, knocking my notebooks to the floor. I adjusted my veil, thanked her for her time, for teaching me about jihad and for making me understand how dangerous her world was.

Baida was smiling again. "If I had not seen you before and talked to you, I would kill you with my own hands," she said pleasantly. "Do not be deceived by my peaceful face. I have a heart of stone."

How Baida Wanted to Die [New York Times Magazine]

[Moreno Valley, California; August 11. Image via Getty]

MORENO VALLEY, CA - AUGUST 11: Specialist Kelli Roberts hugs her daughter, seven-year-old Kaylenn, upon return from her second tour as soldiers of the California National Guard's 1st Battalion, 185th Armored Regiment return from a yearlong combat tour in Iraq at March Air Reserve Base on August 11, 2009 near Moreno Valley, California. More than 800 National Guard soldiers are returning from the deployment statewide. They were augmenting the 81st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, based in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

[Karbala, August 7. Image via Getty.]

A Shiite Mulsim woman holds two candles during prayers at a shrine in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala, 100 kms south of Baghdad, in the early hours of August 7, 2009 at the start of celebrations commemorating the birth of Imam Mahdi, revered by Shiites as the coming Messiah. Mahdi is the 12th Imam who disappeared in the ninth centry and Shiites believe that he will appear before the end of time to establish justice and true Islam in the world. AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED SAWAF (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP/Getty Images)

[Baghdad, August 6. Image via Getty]

BAGHDAD, IRAQ, AUGUST 6: Iraqi chess player Delbak Ismail contemplate her next move during the Iraq chess championship on August 6, 2009 in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi chess players from all over Iraq competed for the second day in a row to win the Iraqi Chess Championship held in Baghdad as the security situation continues to improve in the capital. Iraqi government announced on August 5, that it intends to remove within 40 days the blast walls erected by the U.S. military in Baghdad. (Photo by Muhannad Fala'ah/Getty Images)