WUNRN
IRAQ - SERIOUS CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN
- VIOLENCE - SURVIVAL +
Photo- Jason
Fudge/Flickr - Insecurity
and the threat of violence limits women's freedom
Women may hold 25 percent of seats in the Iraqi parliament, but one in five in
the 15-49 age group has suffered physical violence at the hands of her husband.
Anecdotal evidence alleges that “many women are being kidnapped and sold into
prostitution”, and female genital mutilation is still common in the north, the report
notes.
“The situation many Iraqi women and girls face is beyond words,” journalist
Eman Khammas told IRIN in a telephone interview. “Before, I was a journalist, a
professional; now, I am nothing.”
Khammas noted an underlying political climate of intolerance that has become
increasingly poisonous for women. She was forced to flee
Stay home
Women’s participation in the labour force has fallen sharply since 2003. Before
the invasion, 40 percent of public sector workers were women, according to a
report by the BRussels
Tribunal, an anti-war organisation. Some sectors, such as the
teaching profession, were almost entirely staffed by women, Khammas said.
She cited the “new, fundamentalist thinking”, which emerged after the 2003
invasion of
The collapse of public social services has also limited access to education,
health and jobs, while a high level of insecurity has pushed women out of
public life and into the seclusion of their homes, and an ineffective judicial
system has created an atmosphere of impunity, Khammas said.
The conservative attitudes of public sector officials has been reinforced by a
government that supports keeping women at home, according to a 2007 report by
the international women’s resource network, MADRE.
“In 2006, the Iraqi Interior Ministry issued a series of notices warning women
not to leave their homes alone and echoing the directives of religious leaders
who urge men to prevent women family members from holding jobs,” the report
noted.
“Thus, the violence carried out by militias in the streets is backed up by more
respectable political leaders, who support the call for a women-free public
sphere.”
Escalating poverty has pushed Iraqi families into prioritizing schooling for
boys, stifling future opportunities for women.
“For every 100 boys enrolled in primary schools in
Getting out
Factors pushing girls out of schooling included “security risks, attitudes to
girls and education, the state of the nation’s schools, what is taught and how
it is taught, the skills and attitudes of teachers, family poverty,” UNICEF
said.
Like Khammas, many other women have chosen to leave
Of the 139,000 registered Iraqi persons of concern in
Many do not have work permits, which compounds the difficulties female-headed
households face in neighbouring countries, where they struggle to make a
living, “especially paying the rent”, while still “coping with family, social
and community pressure”, Al-Madaien commented.
Their vulnerability can lead to exploitation. “There is trafficking happening
among the Iraqi refugees, [but] the scope and modality is not known to us,”
said Al-Madaien.
According to the UN Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit report, “Victims
are trafficked internally and to neighbouring countries, including
__________________________________________________________________
Via 16 Days VAW Campaign List
Iraq - 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence 2010
Organization of
Women's Freedom in Iraq
IRAQ - VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN - MILITARY, WAR &
POLITICAL IMPACTS
16 Days of Activism on
Violence Against Women 2010, between the International Day for Elimination of
Violence Against Women (Nov 25) and the International Day for Human Rights (Dec
10) witness a global participation in the campaign to
escalate action to end violence against women. The
current year's campaign is held under the banners of linking militarization of
a society and violence against women. OWFI participates in this campaign by
holding a gathering in Baghdad, posting banners against gender violence, and
raising demands in this occasion.
Iraq was
subject to one of the longest and most violent wars of the last decades; one
which killed more than a million
civilians. Moreover, new method of political struggle developed during this war
which is based on killing and terrorizing civilian individuals and groups such
as what happened in the Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad in this month,
where the armed militias from Al Qaeda and armed state forces collaborated
towards the killing of tens of innocent civilians in a house for worship.
In spite of the claims
of the state that terrorism is the responsibility of foreign groups, it became
clear during the last stages of the formation of the government that acts of
terrorism are connected to main participating groups in the government, which
were ready to end innocent lives in order to claim a stronger presence in the
political formula.
After the occupation of Iraq by the most modern and deadly military arsenal in the world, it was no surprise that the society be dominated by military forces instead of the rule of law.
16 days of Activism on Violence Against Women have a challenging impact an Iraqi society which suffers from continuing violence:
Where the state maintains the constitutional right to
deliberately kill a citizen under the so called death penalty, and practises it
after sessions of torture,
Where honour-killing is still a constitutional right
for any male or armed militia member who utters male-chauvinist idiocies
against a woman's honour,
Where the constitution supports social inequalities
such as the marriage of one man to four women or more,
Where the constitution support economical inequalities
such as a male's right to inherit twice as much as a female, in the country of
two million widowed mothers with no source of income,
And finally, where the laws allowed the multi-national
companies to dig and extract and share Iraqi oil, while tens of thousands of
Iraqi girls and women are sold daily to Sheikhs of oil, and wealth and to
officers of armies.
The state let go of the women's-human rights as there was no militia or
group of violence which demanded women's equality with men, whilst in the same
time the state is keen to amend the laws which preserved the immediate
political rights of those who can start outbreaks of violence or lead military
groups which are mostly religious and sectarian.
In the 16 days of activism, OWFI raises the following
demands:
-
Abolition
of death penalty
-
Full
criminalization of honour-killing
-
Abolition
of polygamy and all the practices permitted under the notorious article of the
constitution 41.
-
Repeal
of unequal inheritance law
OWFI is part of a local and international feminist and freedom-loving
struggle which is escalated against gender violence, especially in areas under
military occupation and attack.
Our struggles continue against state terrorism, militia terrorism and
gender violence.
Long live freedom and equality.
Yanar Mohammed
Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, President
http://www.equalityiniraq.com/
27-11-2010