Most are in their mid-twenties, some wear the Islamic veil, others tight Western clothes but all at Iraq's sole television station swear they won't give in to threats by radical Muslim clerics or Saddam Hussein loyalists.
"Muftis can say whatever they want in their sermons, they can issue fatwas (religious edicts) in Najaf or elsewhere against the station, but I don't care," says Shereen al-Ramahi.
"I am a free journalist and a free woman," she boasts, adding, like her colleagues, that the clergy and others fail to appreciate the media's newfound freedom.
"I chose not to wear the veil and nobody can force me to change my mind," says the 20-year-old who anchors at the Iraqi Media Network (IMN), a station run by the US-led coalition and which began broadcasting soon after the overthrow of Saddam's regime last April.
Sahar al-Ibrahimi, 26, nods her approval: "They should not interfere and we should not let them interfere," she says
Shiite clerics have recently voiced outrage at what they deem are "immoral and indecent" broadcasts.
An official of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) threatened the network with street protests.
"If you do not change your programs and submit to our will, we shall mobilize the Iraqi street against you. We shall mobilize the Iraqi street to defend Islam," warned Sadreddin al-Qabanji in remarks broadcast by Al-Jazeera satellite channel last week.
Al-Jazeera said SCIRI leaders also threatened to "issue fatwas" against the network that also broadcasts radio programs and "to ban any dealing with the station if it does not stop airing programs they described as indecent and immoral."
But IMN's general director Shameem Rassam insists that it is not as bad as it sounds. "I had a delegation from Najaf visit me two weeks ago and it went fine."
"We agreed to disagree on some points and as I told them, we do take into consideration all of Iraq's religious and civil groups in our work," she adds, downplaying any fundamental difference with Iraq's powerful Shiite religious hierarchy based in the central Shiite holy town of Najaf.
"The thing we all agreed on is that we need to generate more Iraqi-made products. Seventy to 80 percent of what we broadcast comes from other Arab countries or foreign countries," she says.
Prompted to elaborate on the nature of the Najaf delegation's complaint, Rassam admits that "they have problems with the lack of modesty in some of our programs."
"But it was with some Arab video clips, not with stuff we produce," she immediately adds.
However Ibrahimi, speaking away from her boss, says the network has had to make some concessions with its own programming.
"During the month of Ramadan, we had to wear the veil," she whispers, apparently concerned her colleagues could overhear.
"We have received a lot of threats, sometimes people even show up at the gates," pipes in Shereen.
Sahar says she feels reassured that the IMN's offices are hosted in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)'s administrative compound.
"Let's face it, the only protection we have is the American presence in and outside the building," she says.
Taking a deep breath and further lowering her voice, Sahar confesses she no longer appears on television and sticks to voiceovers, "just my name, no stand-up."
"I have received death threats," she lets out.
"I did a story soon after the old regime fell on how it used to take advantage of orphans, brainwash them and enroll them as personal guards and Fedayeen," she says, in reference to a pro-Saddam militia.
"The next thing I knew, I received death threats and people showed up at the CPA. Thank God the Americans stopped them.
"I think it's all intimidation and empty words, they would not actually kill us," offers Ramahi as both girls vow to work as "free journalists."
Rassam says a way to accommodate Iraq's various communities is "to have regional programs."
"We're definitely moving in that direction, allocating each region time slots. Look, during Ramadan we aired both Sunni and Shiite prayers live for the first time in the country's history" she says.
Iraq's Shiite majority community was systematically oppressed under Saddam.
"Give us some time, it's been only six months since we started airing. Soon we'll be available on satellite, soon there will be many TV and radio stations reflecting Iraq's great diversity," says Rassam.
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