BAGHDAD, Iraq – Twice a week at 2 p.m., the male congregation of a small Shia mosque in a suburb of Baghdad files out into the alleyway, and a curtain is drawn across the main door.

For the next two hours, this mosque – the identity of which its custodians requested not be given to prevent it from becoming a target for extremists – provides religious training for 30 to 50 local women. The men, armed with Kalashnikovs, stand guard outside.

After decades of suppression, the Shia faith is enjoying a revival.

Under the regime of Saddam Hussein, men faced the possibility of arrest for openly participating in their faith. But the danger for women was even greater, as they not only faced arrest but also the prospect of having their family taken into custody as well.

In the nation’s schools, only the principles of Sunni jurisprudence were taught. Shiites could only learn about their faith at special religious colleges, which were only open to male students.

Today, however, women are being taught the fundamentals of their faith, including the importance of the Prophet’s family, the role of the clergy and other aspects which differ strongly from the Sunni version of Islam.

For four years, Ruqaya Talaqani, who now lectures at the mosque, secretly studied the Shia faith at home under the tutelage of the wife of a prominent scholar. “If we were caught, we would have been put to jail and severely punished,” she said.

Now, that is beginning to change. “Women are so thirsty to learn their faith in the correct manner,” she said. “Because of Saddam’s oppression, they were deprived of everything.”

Talaqani’s lectures also contain a strong political component. “We are against everyone who wants to harm this country,” she told her audience during her first class. “We will fight the Baathists and the Wahabis.”

Talaqani went on to condemn the recent suicide attacks against the police stations in Baghdad and ridiculed the perpetrators for considering themselves martyrs after killing themselves and innocent Iraqis.

Her sermon closed with her students chanting, “God is Great” and “Death to Saddam.”

Abd al-Sattar Lafta, the head of the Association to Commemorate Religious Rituals, thinks providing women with information about their faith may actually help curb the growth of extremism in Iraq.

Shia Islam, for example, places many more restrictions on the declaration of holy war than Sunnism. The course’s organizers hope the students will learn to be skeptical of declarations of jihad from radical preachers.

“Terrorists would not be able to recruit young people if their mothers were politically and religiously aware,” he said. “It is the mothers who spend most of the time with their children and not the fathers.”

Students seem genuinely enthused about the religious program.

“The course boosted our religious understanding. We can now discuss religious affairs with better knowledge and more logical ways,” said Raghad Saeed, a secondary school teacher involved in the program. Before we were chained to what the former regime dictated to us.”

Another student described the religious training program as a “dream come true.” Maha al-Asadi said “We always prayed for this and we could never imagine that this day would come.”

Usama Hashem Rida, a journalist in Baghdad, writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, Lancaster House, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, U.K., www.iwpr.net.

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