Is Iraq Becoming Normal And Peaceful?

Iraqi vendors sell produce in makeshift stalls of poles and plastic sheeting near the site of the New Baghdad Market. The “Baghdad 2” embedded provincial reconstruction team and the U.S. Army 2-69th Armor Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, have been working with local leaders to revitalize the market. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Nicholas Hernandez

In Baghdad, Life Improves But Fear Persists -- MSNBC/AP

After 5 years of violence, some signs of normalcy surface

BAGHDAD - Engineering student Haifaa Salman has discarded the Islamic head cover she started wearing two years ago after militants threatened to "punish" her if she kept showing up at college with her hair uncovered.

"I was forced to wear it," the 22-year-old says, recalling the day in 2006 when two men on a motorbike stopped her outside campus to deliver the threat. But, she adds, "It's different now. Life is normal again. College women wear what they please. The extremist groups are gone."

The decision by some women to shun the Islamic head cover, or hijab, is just one of the signs that Baghdad residents are growing increasingly confident in the past year's security gains.

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