International Women’s Day issue: Women in Iraq hit hardest by war, face deadly duo of violence and religious fundamentalism in politics…

Iraq's ambassador to the United States, Samir Sumaida'ie, began his welcome to the International Women's Day celebration he was hosting this week not with the praises for his countrywomen, but with a moment of silence.

Guests packed into the embassy reception hall bowed their heads -- some covered in the Muslim hijab, most not -- "to remember what Iraqi women have endured and are enduring," he said before dusting off a quick chronology of Iraqi women's achievements: 1923, the first women's magazine; 1935, the first woman law school graduate and doctor; 1938, the first woman judge.