 |
| Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq |
Yifat Susskind of MADRE, Yanar Mohammed of the Organization of Women’s Freedom
in Iraq this week penned “A Decade of Occupation for Iraqi
Women”
Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett
Endlessly repetitive U.S. pattern
Interminable consequences against women
The authors of this article point out what is obvious to any
sane person, in or outside the line of fire: women in war zones anywhere in the
world will tell you that domestic violence increases in times of war.
 |
| “Shock and Awe”the taking of life U.S. in Iraq |
But in Iraq, conditions for women are worsened by the endlessness of war, even after the war pronounced over. In Iraq, the authors report, “violence
against women is systematic.”
|
V
|
iolence against women in Iraq “has been orchestrated by
some of the very forces that the United States boosted to power: … sectarian
militias and clerics [with] a social vision for their country that depends on
subjugating women.”
“Liberators'” bargain with slavers
Wagering that fundamentalists “could deliver stability,” the
United States “cultivated these [fundamentalists] as allies in Iraq,” Yifat Susskind and Yanar Mohammed write.
 |
| Women - Muslim |
 |
| Women - Bahrain |
 |
| Women - International |
“In the drafting of Iraq’s constitution ─ heavily brokered
by the United States ─ the dynamic was clearly at work. To pass it, the United
States needed support from Islamist parties and they got it by trading away
women’s rights. The current constitution is a huge step backwards for Iraqi
women. It replaces one of the Middle East’s most expansive laws on the status
of women, dating from 1959, with separate and unequal laws on the basis of sex.
They subjected Iraqi women to a newly introduced Sharia law promoted in an
article in the new constitution.”
 |
| Women - Gaza |
The consequence, Susskind and Mohammed write, is
that the invaders and occupiers “never even got the stability for which they had
traded women’s rights.”
[Observe a singular U.S. pattern playing out in Libya, in
Syria, in Yemen, in Bahrain, in Saudi Arabia, in eastern Africa, and elsewhere.]
 |
| Women - Congo |
What do Iraqi women want?
What all women want: Equal Rights guaranteed, protected,
enforced in law
The women of Iraq “are fighting for the same democratic principles
we all believe in,” Mohammed and Susskind write. “They know from hard
experience that there is no democracy without women’s rights and that ─
 |
| Women - America |
… Women’s rights will not be
delivered by foreign troops.
The women of Iraq having been subjected to war and violence
for the past 10 years “want to move beyond mere survival and to build the
country they dream of.”
|
I
|
 |
| Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq |
n another context a few years ago, Yanar Mohammed, Iraq’s most
prominent feminist and a staunch critic of the U.S. invasion and occupation of
Iraq, was quoted urging U.S. troops to get out of her country immediately
because ─
 |
| Yanar Mohammed |
We the people of Iraq do not agree
that all the jihadists from around the world are coming to Iraq to fight this
so-called U.S. evil; our cities are turning into a [theater of battle] and all
our lives are being devastated.
U.S. troops need to leave
immediately, with no conditions. We do not accept the debate that there will be
a bloodbath afterwards because nothing is worse than the sectarian war that we
are living right now ─ also a consequence of this war.
Sources and notes
“A Decade of Occupation for Iraqi Women ─ A decade after the
U.S. invasion of Iraq, only one of the straw-man arguments for going to war
remains standing: ‘We did it for democracy and women’s rights’ Yanar Mohammed and Yifat Susskind), March 20,
2013,
http://www.equalityiniraq.com/articles/161-a-decade-of-occupation-for-iraqi-women
Also at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/19-6
Yanar Mohammed
Prominent Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed is co-founder and director
of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and editor of the newspaper
Al-Mousawat (Equality).
Yanar Mohammed was born in Baghdad (1960) and returned there
in 2003. Upon her return to Iraq, she founded several groups to promote women’s
rights in post-Saddam Iraq. Two of those organizations were the Organization of
Women’s Freedom in Iraq and the Committee for the Defense of Iraqi Women’s
Rights (DIWR).
Her feminist newsletter Al-Mousawat is described as ‘a platform of
fearless feminism against Islamic fundamentalism and tribal patriarchal
tendencies”; and a chronicler of various violations and atrocities against women
as the result of war. The Organization
of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, which she founded in 2003, has been active in
supporting women’s rights in the post U.S.-led invasion. Yanar Mohammed’s work with the group gained
her a Gruber Foundation Women’s Rights Prize in 2008.
She has been a strong critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, suggesting
that the “‘U.S. occupation turned the streets of Iraq into a ‘no-women zone.’” She
has also spoken of conditions in Iraq as “a false choice” between occupation
and political Islam: “‘…The American occupation willing to do genocide; or political
Islam forcing [Iraqi women] to live a completely inhuman and un-liberated way
of life.’…
‘U.S. troops should leave immediately because
we, the people of Iraq, do not agree that all the jihadists from around the
world are coming to Iraq to fight this so-called U.S. evil; our cities are
turning into a [theater of battle] and all our lives are being devastated.
‘U.S. troops need to leave
immediately, with no conditions. We do not accept the debate that there will be
a bloodbath afterwards because nothing is worse than the sectarian war that we
are living right now ─ also a consequence of this war.’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanar_Mohammed
Yifat Susskind
Yifat Susskind is a writer and analysis and the executive director
of MADRE. She works with women’s human rights activists from Latin America, the
Middle East, Asia and Africa to create programs in their communities to address
women’s health, violence against women, economic and environmental justice and
peace building. http://www.madre.org/index/meet-madre-1/who-we-are-49/staff--board-162.html
MADRE
MADRE has in 28 years built a network of community-based
women’s organizations worldwide. Its network encompasses thousands of women and
families who are on the frontlines of our global crisis: in Sudan, Iraq, Nicaragua,
Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Palestine, Afghanistan,
Bolivia, and elsewhere. The programs fall into categories of peace building,
women’s health and combating violence against women, and economic and environmental
justice. http://www.madre.org/index/meet-madre-1.html
Women who come together through MADRE are survivors of war,
political repression, genocide, economic and sexual exploitation, and the twin
burdens of natural disaster and disastrous policies. Yet they have refused to
give in to despair. Instead, they have organized with MADRE to build programs
that meet urgent needs in their communities and create lasting solutions to the
crises they confront.
MADRE has historically partnered with sister organizations based
in areas not necessarily highlighted below: our sister organizations
highlighted in the upcoming pages are those MADRE has the honor to work with
currently.
MADRE’s Sister Organizations:
Colombia: Taller de Vida | LIMPAL
Guatemala: Women Workers' Committee | Muixil
Haiti: KOFAVIV
Iraq: The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq
Kenya: Indigenous Information Network | Womankind Kenya
Nicaragua: Wangki Tangni | CADAMUC | REDTRANS
Palestine: Midwives for Peace | The Palestinian Medical
Relief Society | Zakher Association
Peru: CHIRAPAQ | LUNDU
Sudan: Zenab for Women in Development
International: International Indigenous Women's Forum
http://www.madre.org/index/meet-madre-1/our-partners-6.html
http://www.madre.org/index/meet-madre-1/our-partners-6/iraq-the-organization-of-womens-freedom-in-iraq-37.html
_________________________________
Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
_________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment