Kuwait Times

Published Date: March 25, 2008

BAGHDAD: Iraqi women say they are now worse off than they were during the rule of dictator Saddam Hussein and that their plight has deteriorated year by year since the US-led invasion in March 2003. Now they are demanding not just equal rights but the very "right to live", says Shameran Marugi, head of the non-governmental organization Iraqi Women's Committee. "The 'right to live' is a slogan that we have begun using because a women's life in Iraq is being threatened on all sides. Laws are not being imple
mented equally and society is ignoring women," Maguri told AFP.

Before the 2003 invasion it was possible for a woman to lead a normal life as long as she followed state policy," she said. "It was even possible for a woman to engage in political and economic activities through the official Union of Iraqi Women," added Marugi. "When the regime change occurred in 2003, women, men, and children went out on to the streets to celebrate. We were very happy," she said.

Unfortunately there was no qualified leadership to handle the situation and society was not equipped to deal with the changes." The Union of Iraqi Women was dismantled after the invasion as it was affiliated to the former Baath Party of Saddam. In the past few years, Marugi said, violence against women has increased significantly. "At home a woman faces violence from her father, husband, brother and even from her son. It has become a kind of a new culture in the society," said the women's rights campaigne
r.

Out in society, women are subjected to verbal abuse on the streets if they are not wearing a hijab and in extreme cases face being abducted by unknown gunmen, who sexually abuse and then kill them. "It has also become normal for women to receive death threats for working for example as a hairdresser or a tailor, for not wearing a hijab or not dressing 'decently'," said Marugi. "In addition to equal rights we are now demanding the 'right to live'," she added.

Although there are no nationwide official figures available, rights activists report numerous cases of so-called "honor killings" in the southern city of Basra, in the northern Kurdish area and in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. A United Nations report said police in Basra registered 44 cases in 2007 where women were killed with multiple gunshot wounds after being accused of committing "honor crimes." In Baghdad, the report said, several women teachers have been shot dead by armed men, some of them in front of
their students.

A report by the US-based Women For Women International released earlier this month said the state of Iraqi women has become a "national crisis" since the March 2003 US-led invasion. "Present day Iraq is plagued by insecurity, a lack of infrastructure and controversial leadership, transforming the situation for women from one of relative autonomy and security before the war into a national crisis," said the report.

It said 64 percent of the women surveyed complained that violence against them had increased. "When asked why, respondents most commonly said that there is less respect for women's rights than before, that women are thought of as possessions, and that the economy has gotten worse," it said. The report also found that 76 percent of the women interviewed said that girls in their families were forbidden from attending school. Selma Jabu, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's consultant for women's affairs, said ap
art from being sidelined politically Iraqi women are subjected to abuse and intimidation on the streets and face violent sexual abuse.

There is terrorist violence, including bombs, against the Iraqi people in general on the streets. But there is specific violence against women who are being abducted for sex and subjected to many other crimes," Jabu said. "The Iraqi constitution protects and supports women on some issues, but there are other issues we have not agreed upon and we are doing our best to get them in to the constitution," she said. Iqbal Ali, in her forties, said death threats had forced her to close her hairdressing salon in
Baghdad's central Karada neighborhood.

In the beginning everything was going all right but afterwards the situation in the country deteriorated, women hairdressers started getting threats. My work was affected and I closed my salon down." She has now opened a cosmetics and perfume shop which she has named Alwarda Albaidaa (white rose). "I was in a difficult situation financially with no access to rations, no assistance from the government. I was without a job. So I decided to borrow money and open this shop," she added.

Suad Mohammed, an employee in Adhamiyah municipality in northwestern Baghdad, carries a pistol in her handbag. "As an Iraqi woman I don't think it is safe for me to step out of my house freely. So whenever I go out I carry a weapon with me to defend myself," said Mohammed. She said that last year she had gone to a bank to pick up the salary of an old woman who was unable to get there herself, and on the way back the taxi driver turned off and began driving towards the sprawling Shiite neighborhood of Sadr
City.

He refused to stop and I started screaming. And then I remembered I was carrying a weapon, so I decided to defend myself. The only thing I was thinking about was the woman's salary. "I pulled my weapon from my purse and hit him on his neck and hands. He started bleeding but still did not stop. Finally, the taxi was stopped by a passing military convoy and the driver was taken away." Since then, said Mohammed, "every time I leave my neighborhood I make sure I carry my weapon." - AFP