Iraqi women have also criticized the draft constitution for not going far enough to safeguard women’s rights. One critic of the new constitution is Safia Taleb al-Souhail–who just months ago was hailed by the Bush administration as a symbol of the possibility of a brighter future for Iraq. In February she sat with Laura Bush during President Bush’s state of the union and held up her finger died purple to show that she recently voted in Iraq’s first elections since the invasion. But now she is criticizing the new constitution. She told the Independent of London “When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women. But look what has happened: we have lost all the gains we made over the past 30 years. It’s a big disappointment.”