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Asheville Global Report
Iraqi women barred from entering US
Feb. 15 -- Two Iraqi women whose husbands and children were
killed by US troops during the Iraq War have been refused
entry into the United States for a speaking tour. The women
were invited to the US for peace events surrounding an
international women's peace march by the human rights group
Global Exchange and the women's peace group CODEPINK.
In a piece of painful irony, the reason given for the
rejection was that the women don't have enough family in
Iraq to prove that they'll return to the country. "It's
appalling that the US military killed these women's families
and then the US government rejects their visas on the
grounds that they have no family to return to in Iraq. These
women have no desire to stay in the United States. We had a
very hard time convincing them to come, but we told them how
important it would be for their stories to be heard by
Americans," said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of both groups
that had invited the women to the US.
The women whose visa applications were rejected are Anwar
Kadhim Jawad and Vivian Salim Mati. They had to make a
dangerous journey to Amman, Jordan just to apply for the
visas and were told on Feb. 4 that they'd been rejected. On
Feb. 14, CODEPINK was informed by the US State Department
that the women "failed to overcome the presumption of
intending to emigrate." But the group suspects that other
factors influenced the State Department's decision. "I
remember how we all cried when we heard Anwar tell her story
about losing her husband and three of her children," said
Jodie Evans of CODEPINK, who met with Anwar in 2004 in
Baghdad. "If the American people heard these stories, their
image of the Iraq War would be completely different. I
suppose that's why the state department does not want her to
come here."
Anwar's husband and their four children were driving down
the road from their house in Baghdad one day when they were
suddenly caught in a hail of bullets from US soldiers. There
was no checkpoint and no warning before their car was
attacked. Anwar's husband, son and two daughters were shot
dead. Only Anwar, who was pregnant at the time, and her
14-year-old daughter, survived. The US Army compensated her
with $11,000, but her loss is incalculable and her grief
immeasurable.
As Anwar told Susan Galleymore, a US military mother who
visited Iraq in 2004, "In my family, like many Iraqi
families, the husband takes care of all the family business.
My job is to care for the well being of the family inside
the house while my husband's job is to care for every thing
else. This is the way we do it in Iraq. Now, I have no
husband. I have no income. I have no house anymore. I live
with my parents and these two children. Everything else is
gone. I will never recover."
Vivian Salim Mati, the other woman whose visa was rejected,
lost her husband and children when they decided to flee
their home when the US military began bombing their
neighborhood three days after US forces first entered
Baghdad. Vivian grabbed their children and jumped in the
car. Her husband was driving, and their three children were
sitting in the back. They were driving down a side street
when they crossed paths with a US tank. The US soldier atop
the tank began shooting at them. Vivian's husband and three
children were killed instantly. Vivian was hurt but still
alive. She got out of the car, screaming, "Help! Help!," but
the soldiers just kept shooting. Miraculously, Vivian
survived but she carries her grief with her every day.
CODEPINK and Global Exchange had hoped to bring Anwar and
Vivian to the United States for women's peace events to take
place in New York City and Washington, DC, around
International Women's Day. The women would have spoken at
public events and met with policy makers and newspaper
editorial boards. In Washington, DC, on Mar. 8, the Iraqi
women would have joined with US women who lost loved ones in
the war, including Cindy Sheehan, in a Women Say No to War
march. At the end of the march, the women would have
delivered thousands of signatures to the White House from
women around the world who signed the Women Say No to War
urgent petition for peace, which calls for an end to the
Iraq war and all Iraqi civilians in 2006.
CODEPINK and Global Exchange are asking people to contact
the US State Department to urge them to reverse the decision
and grant visas to the Iraqi women.
Source: Global Exchange/CODEPINK
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1587154838/thedanclorenecro/
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
---
George W. Bush _is_ a Christian. Get over it!
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