Iraq's War on Women |
Lesley Abdela |
March 2006
Lesley Abdela - Shevolution - http://www.shevolution.com/ |
Just as Iraqi women were anticipating a new era of democracy and freedom, a
wave of intimidation by extremist groups has arisen to crush their
hopes.
Violent oppression of women is spreading across Iraq, a weapon of
mass mental and physical destruction.
And yet there is silence from world
leaders, religious leaders, politicians and the media.
Insurgents and
religious extremists use rape, acid and assassination to force Iraqi women to
wear the veil – the symbol of submission, first signal of further repression to
come.
Many Iraqi women have never worn the scarf. Now, dead bodies of
girls and women are found in rivers and on waste ground with a veil tied around
the head, as a message.
As well as unveiled women, key targets are those
who wear make-up, who are well educated and in the professions, and who work
with organisations connected with the coalition forces.
Political
Islamists target universities in particular.
A male university professor
told me about a bright, highly intelligent young student from Babylon
University, Hilla, south of Baghdad.
She had never worn the scarf.
Despite death threats to compel her to wear it, she refused to do so and
continued to attend university. She was raped and murdered.
The professor
spoke of the mess made of her body. He has since told his daughter she must
either wear a scarf or leave university. He doesn’t want her to wear the scarf
nor does he want her to leave university, but he is terrified for her
life.
It is clear what the Islamic fundamentalist men want for women.
Using the will of Allah as cover, they pursue women’s conformity to almost any
interpretation of the Qu’ran.
They demand women’s submission to any male
authority. Women are to lead lives without voices, as the social, political and
economic inferiors of men, even of 12-year-old boys.
Competing
futures
It was not always like this. In the pre-Saddam period, women had
opportunities for limited social progress.
In 1948, Iraq had been one of
the first countries in the middle east to have a woman judge; in 1959, Nazila
al-Dulaima (of the Iraqi Communist party) became one of the first female
government ministers in the Arabian peninsula. Even under Saddam’s regime, women
were free to choose whether to wear western-style dress and make-up or the black
abaya.
Many wore western dress in their jobs for government departments
and in schools and universities.
Indeed, when the Ba’ath Party took
control in 1968, one of its proclaimed goals was equality of men and
women.
Women’s inclusion was a key component of the social revolution.
Women were given the right to vote, receive an education, and work outside the
home. Education was mandatory for both girls and boys up to the age of
16.
Women were strongly encouraged to attend universities and acquire
professional skills.
In 1970 the Ba’athists passed a new constitution in
which women and men were made – at least nominally – equal before the
law.
Women’s rights in the political and economic spheres expanded,
though family law, which was based on Islamic law, continued to favour
men.
The ferocious repression of political dissent under the Saddam
Hussein regime, which consolidated its rule, fell on women and men equally, but
particular laws (such as Law 101) – under which (alleged) prostitution was
punishable by death – impacted particularly on women.
Hundreds of women
dissidents and the partners, mothers, sisters and daughters of male dissidents
were branded prostitutes and beheaded.
The need for women to play a
central role in the workforce during the exodus of men to fight in the Iran-Iraq
war (1980-88) drew women into formerly male-dominated positions, such as career
military officers, oil-project designers, and construction supervisors,
scientists and engineers, doctors, accountants and jobs in general
administration.
In 1989, 27 women were elected to Iraq’s 250-seat
national assembly – at 10.8%, a higher ratio than the British House of Commons
had at the time, with 41 women out of 650 seats (6.3%).
A new phase
opened when Saddam’s statue was forced to the ground after the three-week
conflict, in April 2003.
At that point, Iraqi women’s hopes for freedom
and democracy soared. From September 2003 to February 2004, I was in the
populous south-central province, working with women’s associations and
human-rights groups in Hilla, Karbala, Diwaniya and al-Kut.
I ran
workshops on democracy and human rights, and attended conferences in Babylon
University, Baghdad and Basra alongside women from all over Iraq.
Iraqi
women, encouraged by the declarations of George W Bush and Tony Blair, said they
wanted to learn how to participate in democracy; they wanted at least 50%
representation at all levels of government – local and national; they wanted 50%
representation on any council deciding on the new constitution.
Plus they
wanted women’s human rights and equal opportunities enshrined in the new
constitution that
Iraq’s political representatives were to
draft.
Universal intimidation, separate laws?
More than a year on,
prospects are bleaker. Attacks have now expanded from certain geographic
locations to the whole country.
They have also spread to non-Muslim
women.
A report by Sahar al-Haideri and Wa’ad Ibraheem for the Institute
for War & Peace Reporting tells the story of Christian lawyer Ishaq in
Mosul, who received the threat, “wear the veil or face death”.
To
reinforce the warning, a group of men approached Ishaq on the street on her way
to work and threw acid in her face.
Attacks like this have frightened
thousands of Christian women into wearing the veil.
Similar attacks and
threats have forced a number of women in the northern city of Mosul to give up
paid work or to make sure they are accompanied to work by a brother, a male
driver or a guard. Women have begun to fear wearing make-up.
A woman who
owned a beauty salon closed it down after receiving threats.
On 26 June
2005, I took part in a conference called “Our Constitution, Our
Future”.
Organised by the international NGO Women for Women, and
judiciously situated outside Iraq, on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea, it
focused on how best to replace restrictive laws and practices so the new
constitution conforms to international agreements, particularly the jewel in the
crown, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (Cedaw).
Around 60 Iraqi men and women parliamentarians,
academics, activists and members of the drafting committee for the constitution
risked their lives to attend.
The division was clear even at the
conference: progressive women and men want a secular constitution.
More
extreme religious groups (which include women) want Islamic Shari’a
law.
A parallel legal system, in which citizens can opt either for
religious or civil law, is one potential compromise.
This would not be a
unique and untried solution: in Lebanon Shi’a women have different rights from
Christian women, Sunni women from Shi’a and Christians; Palestinians in Israel
can choose to go to the civil court or to the Shari’a court.
On my return to Sussex, England, from the conference, I found emails
waiting for me from Iraqi women, many of whom I know from my time in Iraq
conducting advocacy, democracy and leadership courses and helping to start up
women’s associations.
Their messages describe escalating assassinations
and violence conducted by insurgents against women.
Attacks take place
with impunity. In some cases the police are thought to be implicated.
Not
a women’s issue
Women make up perhaps 60% of Iraq’s population after the
Iran-Iraq war and the slaughter of perceived opponents by Saddam and his
entourage. What can be done about this “black death” spreading
among
Iraq’s women?
The violence against women taking place in Iraq is not a
so-called women’s issue. The perpetrators are men.
The majority of people
holding the reins of power in Iraq and the majority of leaders in the
international community are men.
How can men and women talk about
democracy and human rights and somehow treat these atrocities as a side
issue?
Iraqi women want the world to know what is happening – in
detail.
Iraqi women want the United Nations, and especially Muslim
religious leaders worldwide, to call for specific action to prevent the
escalating targeted assassinations of Muslim and Christian women.
They
want the cowardly perpetrators punished.
The challenge for men and women committed to democracy and human rights
is to trigger a campaign of commitment from the world on the scale of “Make
Poverty History”, to make murder and violence against women in Iraq (and the
world) history, and to punish the perpetrators. To quote the suffragette slogan:
Iraqi women need deeds not words.
And they need them now.
________________________________________________________________________________
Lesley Abdela is a partner in Eyecatcher Associates / Shevolution and
is Chief Executive of Project Parity.
Lesley has over 20 years
experience in the fields of gender and democratic development. Since 1992 she
has worked in over 30 countries as an expert advisor to governments and
international organisations, NGO's and the private sector.