http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1164268,00.html
Comment
An empty sort of freedom
Saddam was no defender of women, but they have faced new miseries and
more violence since he fell
Houzan Mahmoud
Monday March 8, 2004
The Guardian
Women in Iraq endured untold hardships and difficulties during the past
three decades of the Ba'ath regime. Although some basic rights for
women, such as the right to education, employment, divorce in civil
courts and custody over kids, were endorsed in the Personal Status Code,
some of these legal rights were routinely violated.
The Ba'ath regime's "faithfulness campaign", an act of terrorism against
women that included the summary beheading of scores of those accused of
prostitution, is just one example of its brutality against women.
However, it is now almost a year after the war, which was supposed to
bring "liberation" to Iraqis. Rather than an improvement in the quality
of women's lives, what we have seen is widespread violence, and an
escalation of violence against women.
From the start of the occupation, rape, abduction, "honour" killings and
domestic violence have became daily occurrences. The Organisation of
Women's Freedom in Iraq (Owfi) has informally surveyed Baghdad, and now
knows of 400 women who were raped in the city between April and August
last year.
A lack of security and proper policing have led to chaos and to growing
rates of crime against women. Women can no longer go out alone to work,
or attend schools or universities. An armed male relative has to guard a
woman if she wants to leave the house.
Girls and women have become a cheap commodity to be traded in
post-Saddam Iraq. Owfi knows of cases where virgin girls have been sold
to neighbouring countries for $200, and non-virgins for $100.
The idea that a woman represents family "honour" is becoming central to
Iraqi culture, and protecting that honour has cost many women their
lives in recent months. Rape is considered so shaming to the family's
honour that death - by suicide or murder - is needed to expunge it.
Like Iraqi men, many women have lost their jobs. Marooned at home and
lacking independence, women are faced with new miseries. Islamist groups
have imposed veiling, and have issued fatwas against prostitutes. Now
"entertainment" marriages aretaking place. This is an Islamic version of
prostitution, in which rich men marry women temporarily (often for only
a few hours) in return for money.
The Iraqi Governing Council - an American creature - offers no hope for
Iraqi women, consisting as it does of religious or tribal leaders and
nationalists who rarely make any reference to women's rights. In fact,
many IGC members have a history of violating women's rights.
For example, the Kurdish nationalist parties that have been running
northern Iraq for more than 13 years have violated women's rights and
tried to suppress progressive women's organisations. In July 2000, they
attacked a women's shelter and the offices of an independent women's
organisation. Both were saving the lives of Kurdish women fleeing
"honour" killings and domestic violence. More than 8,000 women have died
in "honour" killings since the nationalists have been in control.
One of the IGC's first moves was symbolic. International Women's Day in
Iraq has been changed from March 8 to August 18, the date of birth of
Fatima Zahra, the prophet Mohammed's daughter. This has nothing to do
with women's rights, and everything to do with subordinating women to
religious rules.
When the IGC proposed replacing the secular law with sharia, there were
big demonstrations, but these have received almost no media coverage.
This is no surprise. When the Union of the Unemployed marched for jobs,
American soldiers arrested some of the organisers. This, too, passed
unnoticed.
What is needed is a secular constitution based on full equality between
women and men, as well as the complete separation of religion from the
state and education system. At a demonstration in Baghdad recently,
Yanar Mohammed, Owfi's chairperson, received two death threats from an
Islamist militia group. They threatened to assassinate her and "blow up"
activists who work with her.
Amnesty International has taken these threats so seriously that it has
written to Paul Bremer, the US chief administrator in Iraq, raising its
concern for Yanar Mohammed's safety. It is urging the Coalition
Provisional Authority to ensure that, amid the bombs and the atrocities,
the deterioration of women's rights doesn't become a secondary issue.
The groups represented in the IGC are irrelevant to Iraqis' demands and
desire for freedom. American support for Islamist groups through the IGC
exposes US hypocrisy. The parties in the IGC have no legitimacy, and
have not been chosen by Iraqis.
Iraq's lack of basic rights for women and the rise of political Islam
are the result of three wars and the ongoing occupation. The only way
out of this chaos is through the direct power of the real people of Iraq
- the progressive, secular masses.
· Houzan Mahmoud is the UK representative of the Organisation of Women's
Freedom in Iraq
houzan73@yahoo.co.uk
www.equalityiniraq.com
(c) 2004 Guardian Newspapers
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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