Women make pitch to Iraqi voters

"We don't need just any politician, but one who will look after our farms, our people and our faith," one man shouted above the din, spraying spittle in his enthusiasm to show his support.

The mustachioed Sheikh Muthanna al-Hatem al-Hassan, who is running for parliament, promised to look after the tribe from a seat of power in Baghdad.

"What's important to us is Iraq, and what we need is one Iraq only," says Sheikh Muthanna, with the practiced, good-news air of a politician. "This is the first step, and like every first step, this one will be hard. Sure, there will be some trouble, but I'm sure, in the end everything will be better."

While Muthanna has a built-in support base of hundreds of thousands of Bani Hassan tribesmen, the women candidates in Najaf have to sell potential voters on their plans and integrity.

While many can tick off the number of relatives killed by anti-Shiite repression under Mr. Hussein, they also boast advanced degrees and years of community service that give them standing here.

"This kind of election is not going to happen every day," says Batoul Farouk, a candidate on the Dawa provincial list who holds a master's degree in Islamic Science and is head of a Najaf women's association.

A legitimate elected government, she says, can "close the door against the terrorists."

"The election is the only exit from these problems we have in Iraq - there is no other solution," says lawyer Najla Mahdi Bhar, who is a candidate on the Iraqi Future Gathering Party list.

For the national vote, all these candidates support the list backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, No. 169. While Mr. Sistani has telegraphed support for a nation not run by the clergy, as in Iran, some candidates expect there to be more religion in government.

"Iraq is an Islamic country, and it doesn't hurt that we will rely upon the Koran to write our constitution," says Nisreen al-Fatlawi, a candidate of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SCIRI), which was formed in Iran for Iraqi exiles more than 20 years ago.

"All of the clerics are politicians," says Fatin Khawam Shirali, a physiology professor and SCIRI candidate, naming several. "They can lead the country better than anyone else. Religion does not need to be isolated from politics."

The comments sparked debate about how far mosque and state should be separated, and whether Iran's theocracy should serve as a model.

"It doesn't hurt that we will take the positives from the Iran model, and apply them to Iraq," says Ms. Fatlawi, "but it does not mean that it will be exactly the same experiment in Iraq."

"As Iraqis, we have our independent traditions," adds Muna Jabar al-Najar, a finance officer at Kufa University. "Of course, the Iranians are not going to reflect their experiment on our people."

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