I...I don't know what to say about this.

[Saya]

Fifteen-year-old Ban, a fan of an American goth band and 'Twilight,' accessorizes her school-mandated head scarf and gown with skull pendants, black fingernails and a matching attitude.

Reporting from Baghdad — In the sacred Shiite city of Najaf, where women hide themselves behind dark robes and head scarves, 15-year-old Ban wears the wrong kind of black.

She likes dark, ripped gloves, silver butterfly shirts and white dice on a chain. She paints her nails black and brushes on matching eye shadow.

Ban is an emo, belonging to a subculture that may have gone mainstream in the rest of the world, but sure hasn't here. She pronounces it "emu." Either way, it means she's a goth with a fondness for sparkle.

"It's the duality of being simultaneously cheerful and bored with life," she says. Like a 15-year-old anywhere, she fidgets, giggles at the mention of a favorite band and brags about her defiance before blushing at the thought of such brazenness.

The Baghdad transplant proudly calls herself Najaf's first emo. At her private school, she talked her friends into following her lead of veiled rebellion: copying the sneakers that peek out from her robe, a skull sketched on one shoe and an angel on the other.

"I'm the girl from Baghdad," says Ban, who spoke on condition that her last name not be revealed. "They look up to me."

Her story fits the classic model of the new girl in town, except it has unfolded against the backdrop of a sectarian war. It illustrates the competing religious and Western influences that have roiled Iraq since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein more than seven years ago, when she was still a little girl.

In Ban's mind, everything was perfect in Baghdad before the civil war. Her family had Internet access and satellite TV, and she could do what she wanted. But her Shiite Muslim family lived in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Dora, and in early 2007, the country's violence caught up with them.

Her father was wounded when gunmen ambushed his car. Soon after, a neighbor warned her parents that they were on a list of people to be killed. The family fled to Najaf, where they knew they would be safe and Ban's father, a doctor, could find work.

Najaf was a rude awakening. Neighbors didn't say hello to Ban and her older sister, Dina, the way people did in Baghdad. The girls missed their friends.

They felt closer to death in Najaf. Whenever a relative or friend died, the body was brought to the city's vast cemetery for burial, and her parents greeted the mourners. "My mom doesn't like black because so many people died," Ban says, pushing her bangs from her eyes.

At first, her schoolmates would tease her because she wore sandals to class, not shoes like the rest of them, and because her mother, not her father, drove her to school. Students would jeer, "She's a Baghdad girl."

Her teachers forced Ban to wear a head scarf. In her second year, it got worse: The school also ordered her to wear the dark gown called an abaya.

"The ayatollahs go overboard," she says angrily. "Everything is haram [forbidden]. Nail polish. Makeup. Everything is no, no, no."

Depressed, Ban combed the Internet for songs and quickly became a fan of Evanescence, a moody goth band fronted by Amy Lee, a woman from Texas with a penchant for black leather, red lipstick and butterflies. Ban memorized Lee's lyrics: "Fear is only in our minds. But it's taking over all the time. You poor sweet innocent thing, dry your eyes and testify."

The more she read about Lee, the more she wanted to be emo. She pronounced it "emu" because she thought it was more sophisticated than "emo," which sounded common in Arabic, like the street dialect spoken by militia members.

On a trip back to Baghdad, she asked an older cousin whether being emo was OK, and he assured her it was. Then she visited an old friend, who liked to wear jeans and black leather bracelets and canvas Converse sneakers. Turns out she was into emo too.

That day, they styled Ban's hair with long bangs and scoured clothing shops for the fishnet gloves, skull pendants and spikes that both girls had studied feverishly on the Internet.

At first, her friends made fun of her skull-and-angel sneakers, but soon they bought Converses too. Even her sister Dina, who had decided she was religious and enjoyed wearing head scarves, wrote "life" on one shoe and "death" on the other. Dina decided to help Ban create her new style.

If Ban had chosen to be a goth, she would have to wear only black and act depressed. But she was emo, so she could wear some bright colors and be bored with life, but funny too.

"I can smooth my bangs and leave the rest of my hair messy," Ban says and then rolls her eyes. "Goths tend to be suicidal."

She let Dina, who had a fondness for purple hijabs, coach her on what colors to wear. She calls Dina "her fashion checkpoint."

At school, Ban recruited nine other girls to be emos, or "angels," her term for those who liked the emo style but don't always wear black.

Other girls ridicule their skull rings and spikes, but Ban says her rivals secretly copy them. She giggles and calls her enemies "Hakimus," a playful reference to the Hakims, one of Najaf's most famous religious families.

Ban and her friends turned two benches in the back of their schoolyard into their hangout. If any Hakimus tried to sit there, the "emus" would kick them out. Alone, the girls harmonized on songs by Evanescence and rappers Eminem and 50 Cent.

On weekends the girls would have slumber parties and watch pirated copies of the "Twilight" movies, about a star-crossed romance between a vampire and a teenage girl. The girls swooned over the vampire heartthrob Edward and hissed at his love interest, Bella, for toying with his emotions.

"He's so romantic," Ban says, fluttering her raven-shaded eyelids.

Recently, the school headmistress called Ban and her friends to her office after a teacher spied graffiti on their desk that said "Emu" and "Angels" and thought it was code for a secret romance. The girls were asked, "Who is this Angel guy that you love?"

Ban scowls at the indignity. Still, she loves to tweak her teachers. On the final day before last year's summer break, she dangled her skeleton-and-guitar necklace in front of her abaya.

"What were they going to do, suspend me?" she sneers, and then laughs at how she sounds and at her sister's amused glance.

Ban says her parents have defended her when teachers have called them about her wardrobe.

They do have limits, though. They haven't allowed her to have multiple ear piercings. Ban says she has tried to tone down her appearance with lighter makeup because she doesn't want to worry her parents.

She wishes her family could go back to Baghdad, but she knows that would be too dangerous.

She says she's just a girl "hanging out and listening to music."

A girl who was forced to flee her home.

"We just want a way to vent and express ourselves and be free from the pressures we have in our lives," she says. "I know I'm only 15, but a lot is required of me."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...rce=feedburner

So, uh...Hmmm.

[KontanKarite]

What is this? I don't even

[Garethsteen]

I can't fault her actions. She wants to express herself, all power to her.

[Solumina]

...wow I have nothing else to say

[Alan]

Tell me I'm not the only one that found it an inspirational story.

[Versus]

When I was in Iraq, it always amused me to see their take on western culture. The guy rocking a man dress with sandals, blazer, and mullet at the same time was one of my favorites.

[KontanKarite]

That's what's weird to me. I do find it ballsy as hell. But it's still lame to our standards. Fuck it. More power to her.

[Versus]

Hey, she doesn't know what our standards are because we're a niche community that knows better... but that's alright.

[HumanePain]

If I could I would send her my Goth CD collection
"A life less lived" box set, my Bauhaus poster and my Circa skull sneakers.

You go girl!

[KontanKarite]

I gotta say though, I kinda like how she sorta mods out her conservative threads.

[ape descendant]

I don't care how silly it may sound to us, Miss Ban is super badass!! It has got to take some big brass ones to be 15, a girl and stand up and out in a culture that doesn't want you to.

[Beneath the Shadows]

Originally Posted by Saya

I...I don't know what to say about this..

"Good for her" is usually a good place to start.

[Solumina]

Or you could start with "Wow that is a really warped view of a fairly mainstream part of western culture. Maybe we have an equally warped view of Iraqi culture".

Personally I am less blown away by the girl (I will admit that it takes some balls to do what she is doing but there are plenty of people with the courage to stand up and take action) and more by her view of western culture. She seems so certain that she is an expert about a subculture when in actuality most of the people in that subculture routinely make fun of people for holding the very same opinions that she has. I wonder if that makes anyone on here think a bit more about their views of Middle Eastern culture.

[Versus]

Not I. I hate Iraq with a passion.

[Saya]

I'm conflicted because if it was a girl saying the same thing about her Catholic school uniform most people would tell her to suck it up. And I hate that its pretty much our fault women feel they need to cover themselves up over there, its not law, its her's school's dress code, and women had the vote since 1980 in Iraq, not saying it was all sunshine and lolly pops before but they're going backwards on women's rights since the invasion. But its kinda presented as a girl being a martyr for embracing western culture while evil Islamic school rules would oppress her free spirit.

[Alan]

Make-up was a sign of rebellion after the Iran revolution.

[Saya]

But Iran has been oppressive towards women for quite some time, its illegal to show your hair. Before the war in Iraq, it was fine for women to wear whatever they want. Now the constitution bans any laws that go against Islam, so there's fear that there can be a return to laws suppressing women, and women cover themselves, even Christians, to avoid being targeted by militants. Its brave to wear what you will in public to not allow yourself to be cowed, true, but this is a school uniform.

And no one would care if laws did change. In Afghanistan Karzai passed a law that banned women from working without their husband's permission and legalized marital rrape. It was barely talked about. It could very be that Iraq will become worse for women than it was before, and we would ultimately still support the installed government.

[Versus]

Originally Posted by Saya

But its kinda presented as a girl being a martyr for embracing western culture while evil Islamic school rules would oppress her free spirit.

What other way is there to look at it?

[Saya]

We invaded her country, tore it apart, and she had to go on the run and leave the city she grew up in and loved and could wear whatever she wanted, and now she's in a town she doesn't like and they made her wear something she doesn't like at school?

[Versus]

Isn't that a spin, too?

I was legitimately asking, by the way.

[Saya]

I was legitimately answering?

Thing is, presenting it like its so horrible that her school makes her wear a uniform is weird since uniforms (that students complain about) isn't exactly unheard of here. I'd be far more curious as to what the reactions are when she goes out in public than in school.

[Versus]

You're right that it's not really a big deal that her she doesn't want to wear a uniform. Even if I didn't wear a uniform every day at work, I'd still not take a student that complains about it seriously. I think what's important is that she actually does violate the dress code. It's only relatively more odd then what it literally is.

Also, kind of strange side note. I never saw school girls that weren't on their way to/leaving school. Like, they didn't even play/hang out outside like the boys did.

[KontanKarite]

You know what... I'm going to be a bit of an asshole about this.

She wants to embrace western culture, then I'll hold her to the standard of western culture. Clearly, she'd be a poseur and she should respect the rules of her school. You know, parents in the west move all the time and take their kids to places they don't like into schools they don't like with uniforms they don't like. Now I SHOULD say that she should stop being a mallgoth and grow up. Logically, everyone should be saying these exact words.

But within the setting that she's in, it appeals to our compassion and we want to have sympathy for her.

But the bigger thought that I want to mention is; if we're so secure within our own culture, then why is it excusable for us to pretty much oppress our youths' expression by dismissing them as being immature and refusing to call a spade a spade in the spirit of making our kids wear uniforms as being oppressive and yet here we are, commending this brave soul who is doing the very THING that we would typically rail against here. There are places in the west that are still dangerous to do this in public just as much as this girl is going through. Maybe we're not nearly as socially liberal and advanced as we'd like to think we are.

I mean, if we want to be fair, shouldn't she be treated as our cultural equal and she should at least be shunned for rebelling against her school uniform code?

[Angelic Dissonance2]

In Soviet Russia, scene kids make fun of YOU.

Yay for revolution!!! According to Googlism, Revolution is:

revolution is coming your way
revolution is illusion
revolution is a revolution of random access
revolution is running out of steam
revolution is shaping our
revolution is over
revolution is needed
revolution is changing marin's schools"
revolution is apparently
revolution is not being televised
revolution is a mirage
revolution is a moment
revolution is possible'

www.googlism.com

And that's poetry, my friend.
This has everything to do with that.

[Versus]

Except that I don't shun children who violate a dress code at school. I always thought it wasn't a big deal. It's stupid when children act like it's the end of the world, but fuck... I would have done the same thing.

But no. I don't think they are our cultural equal, just like we are not theirs. Most of what we know is not directly from the source, so we'd fuck up their nuances as well.