"Love" on the Air in Iraq

THE U.N.'S SMALL FOOTPRINT IN IRAQ MASKS AN INCREASING PRESENCE ON THE AIRWAVES.


The United Nations hasn't had much of a physical presence in Iraq since the 2003 truck bombing that killed Sergio Vieira de Mello and about two dozen others at the U.N.'s Baghdad compound. But out of sight doesn't mean out of mind.

Today's Lebanon Daily Star highlights an AFP story about a new women's radio station that's been on the air in Iraq for about three months. The new station, supported by the United Nations Development Fund for Women, focuses on issues like "the importance of women's rights and the new Iraqi constitution, the forthcoming general election, childhood needs as well as family problems," the Star says.

The seriousness of the station's focus and mission are undercut by its patronizing name (Al-Mahaba, or "love" in Arabic), but still: The U.N. is heeding its Charter's call to "reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small. ..."