Iraqi women lament costs of U.S. invasion

[rico1]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/12/21419232-iraqi-women-lament-costs-of-us-invasion?lite

 

 

By Suadad al-Salhy and Isabel Colesk, Reuters

BAGHDAD -- One year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, then-President George W. Bush told a gathering at the White House: "Every woman in Iraq is better off because the rape rooms and torture chambers of Saddam Hussein are forever closed."

A decade on, that statement rings hollow for many Iraqi women.

Although few miss Saddam's iron-fisted rule or the wars and sanctions he brought upon Iraq, women have been disproportionately affected by the violence that has blighted the lives of almost all Iraqis.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. ITV's John Irvine in Baghdad assesses a country that remains gripped by the violence of its sectarian divide.

Domestic abuse and prostitution have increased, illiteracy has soared and thousands of women have been left widowed and vulnerable. Many women also rue the political leaders that came to power after Saddam was overthrown and the growing social conservatism that has diminished their role in public life.

Once at the vanguard of women's rights in the region, Iraq ranked 21st out of 22 Arab states in a poll of 336 gender experts released on Tuesday by Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The survey, conducted in August and September, asked questions about violence against women, reproductive rights, treatment of women within the family, their integration into society and attitudes towards a woman's role in politics and the economy.

Ibtisam, 40, was injured by an iron bar as she fled shelling in the U.S.-led invasion and was forced to have her uterus surgically removed. During the sectarian carnage that followed, a Shi'ite militia kidnapped her husband and killed him.

"If the 2003 war had not taken place... at least my husband would be still alive and I would not live in such humiliating circumstances," said Ibtisam, who now works on date farms near her home in eastern Baghdad to provide for her two young daughters.

Seated in the living room of her home in Baghdad, Sana Majeed, mother of two, reminisced about the "golden times" during the 1970s, when she went to parties, galleries and restaurants, and was free to dress as she pleased.

Jacob Silberberg / AP, file

A U.S. Army soldier stands guard while women cry after soldiers kicked through their front gate in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 6, 2006.

The reality of the new Iraq struck her in 2005, when she got out of a taxi and was accosted by a group of men in black who chastised her for wearing inappropriate clothing and told her to go home and cover her hair.

"Islamist parties started to control Iraq and that was the worst nightmare Iraqi women have ever faced," said Majeed, who now wears a black abaya and head scarf. "Religious parties and militia have stolen free life from Iraqi women."

The first piece of legislation Iraq's new leaders sought to change was the personal status law, which enshrines women's rights regarding marriage, inheritance, polygamy and child custody, and has often been held up as the most "progressive" in the Middle East.

Although that first attempt failed, efforts to bring the law in line with Islamic dictates and put family affairs in the hands of religious authorities still continue.

Nadje Al-Ali, a professor of gender studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said women were often used symbolically to reject the previous political order.

"There has been this increase towards greater social conservatism where women are concerned," said Al-Ali, who co-authored the book "What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq".

"I think one has to understand that in a context of reacting against the previous regime and also reacting against Western imperialism. Overall, it has been devastating."

John Moore / AP, file

Mothers cradle their children and watch as nine-month-old Akram Arif dies of gastroenteritis across the room in the Saddam Children's Hospital in Baghdad on Sept. 17, 1996. Iraqi hospitals had few medicines due to U.N. sanctions at the time.

The erosion of women's status in fact began before 2003, when the international community imposed punitive sanctions on Iraq in response to Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

With the economy crippled, the government was no longer able to afford services such as child care and maternity leave that had enabled women to enter the workforce as part of Saddam's drive to industrialize Iraq.

"After Saddam was toppled, I had a feeling the good old days would return," said Majeed. "Saddam was gone, the blockade will be lifted, and that gave me a big hope to be a free woman again."

It was a hope shared by many women after the invasion. Sidelined from politics under Saddam, women successfully lobbied for a quarter of seats in parliament to be set aside for them.

But the quota has not translated into meaningful participation, according to several women lawmakers, who said most female MPs did little more than rubber stamp the decisions of their party leaders, all of whom are men.

"Women are not effective in political or government decision-making processes despite the wide participation of women in the political life after 2003," said lawmaker Alia Nussaif Jassim.

In the first government formed after the invasion, women held six cabinet posts, but the number has now fallen to one: the minister for women's affairs, a largely ceremonial department with a meager budget and few employees.

One year after the U.S. military pullout, Iraq teeters between statehood and failure. NBC News' Jim Maceda reports.

"Believe me, if Iraqi culture, tradition and mentality would accept a man to have this post, the men would not even give that to a woman," said lawmaker Safia al-Souhail, one of 21 women who won enough votes to enter parliament without the quota.

Souhail lamented that women were also denied a single seat on key parliamentary committees such as security and defense, and reconciliation.

Within the parliament, women's efforts to cooperate across the political spectrum have been stymied by disputes between Shiite Muslim, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish factions that have all but paralyzed the Iraqi political process.

"This term, women were not able really to work together," Souhail said. "This fight between political parties and blocs and the division reflects on the women MPs as well."

The invasion has been kinder to women living in Iraq's Kurdish north, which bore the brunt of Saddam's authoritarian rule, but is now prospering.

The autonomous region has largely managed to insulate itself from the violent instability that afflicts the rest of the country and has even become a refuge for many Arab Iraqi men and women alike.

The region's government won praise in 2011 for passing a law that criminalized domestic violence, honor killings and female genital mutilation, but activists and women's rights groups say there is still work to be done.

Back in Baghdad, Majeed said women must not give up.

"Women in Iraq must not quit trying to reclaim their freedom," said Majeed. "I think we should keep our voice loud, if not for ourselves, for the sake of our daughters."

 

[TBomb]

Although there's much to resolve, I'm thankful this issue is being discussed in the press.  I've also seen on the COM site and in the press, women's symposiums being held throughout the country.  Thanks Rico!

[sandfly]

THANKS

[TBomb]

The Ministry of women: a study of the Thomson Reuters Foundation is accurate and reduced the achievements of Iraqi women
Published: 7: 11 pm, August 13, 2013
Women's Ministry
Baghdad (amstkolh). I returned the women's Ministry study asadratha Thomson Reuters Foundation in the area of women's issues was based on inaccurate information about the situation of women, and assessed the situation.

Classified (Thomson Reuters) in the light of the examination of the situation of women in the Arabic countries, Egypt ranked first place as the worst country in which women can live, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Syria.

The Ministry said in a statement that the institution relied on "send questionnaire to people as experts, shows that the number of respondents from each State must at least 10 people, 10 people, maximum 15 people of Iraq are based on them in the assessment of the situation of Iraq."

The statement noted that the institution confirm when listed for the survey methodology study survey shows the opinion of a group of people in a specified time (August-September 2013) and their views may be affected by any event that happened during that period.

"It seems that those who were not familiar with the questionnaire, statistics and database, where the answer was one that Iraq does not give the Iraqi people married to foreigners, Iraqi nationality, while the Iraqi Parliament has initiated a law to do so in 2011.

The statement said the study pointed to widespread human trafficking and prostitution without careful and reliable statistics, and ignored the Iraq legislation for anti-trafficking law balbsharaam 2012, forming a higher Committee chaired by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of supervision on work safety, which was established recently for the protection of victims of trafficking in human beings.

The study overestimated the "widows" in Iraq (1,600,000) widow, not based on any document while statistics indicate the Central Bureau of statistics, the number of widows in Iraq less than a million widows. "

Women's Ministry expressed surprise of "classification of Iraq in this place which has a bundle of legislation and national machinery on women, such as the Ministry of State for women's Affairs and social welfare services for women, women in all State ministries and institutions and monitoring Department in the Ministry of human rights, and women and family Committee in the Iraqi Parliament and the women's committees in every governorate councils".

Noting that Iraq "possesses the best personal law in Arabic and it does not allow the marriage of minors, unless absolutely necessary, and most of the Iraqi Judicial Council statistics confirm that total 234495 marriage 2012 there were 1,424 held under 18 absolutely necessary approved by law, and civil society organizations, women's Ministry to curb this phenomenon by all possible means."

It also pointed out that "there are Iraqi labour law that allows women to work in all fields, secured with equal, working in all the ministries and institutions of the State, even in the police and security services, a soldier and an officer have the rights and privileges of all military men, are engaged in all kinds of private sector, and total freedom."

"The Iraqi legislation contained no less than 25% in national and local legislative councils, which have parliamentary elections 2010, 82 of the 325, and provincial Council elections in 2013, 117 Member of 447 in all provinces of Iraq, and women's participation in the rating of 42%.

"There is violence family protection police since 2009 and their statistics confirm the registration status of variety between 8672 violence against women, parents or children or relatives, sometimes against the same pair, there are hot lines to report cases of violence. The Iraqi Government has recently approved the national strategy to combat violence against women, and the law for the protection of domestic violence under the legislation currently being examined by the State Council ".

The Ministry also expressed surprise at the study categorized the situation of women in the Arabic countries better than Iraq although their home countries do not prevent child marriage and does not allow women to the naturalization of their children, prevent women from political participation, driving, and more than half of women are circumcised.

The Ministry said "weakness of this study and non-conformity to reality", urging all institutions to refer to reliable sources and the adoption of clear and transparent criteria for the comparison between Arabic, because the value of any research or study depends on information and accurate figures and documented sources.

It also confirmed that the report had "ignored the considerable achievements of the women in Iraq after 2003, although each has happened but it is the level of ambition in these terrorist challenges and war against Iraq inside and out is a great achievement for both address the issue of women."(The end)

 

http://www.faceiraq.com/inews.php?id=2202088