IRAQ'S COUNCIL
July 17, 2003, NYT Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

Re "A Governing Council for Iraq" (editorial, July 15):

By appointing only three women to the 25-member council, the United States has lost a great opportunity to show the Iraqi society that Americans recognize women and men as equal partners in nation-building.

On the other hand, the token number of women in the council may also suggest that sexism still infects our political system so much that we can't even pretend to be gender-inclusive when setting up a new democratic institution elsewhere.

CHIJI AKOMA
Newtown Square, Pa., July 15, 2003

This letter can also be read on the New York Times online.