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Crisis - Open Forum > Next Story
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Women of Iraq have gradually let go of most of their 20th century gains and
privileges in the last 4 years of occupation. Iraq has turned from a modern
country of educated and working women into a divided land of Islamic and
ethnic warlords who compete in canceling women from the social realm.
Millions of women's destinies are wasted between the destructive US war
machine and different kinds of Islamic rule who have turned women into
helpless black objects of no will or worth.
After 4 years of "democratizing" Iraq, systemic group rapes of detained
women have become a routine procedure to be practiced in police stations
and detainment camps. It has also become another ugly face of the atrocious
sectarian war where assaulting females of the other sect is considered a
political victory and punishment.
Abeer, Sabrine, and Wajidah's sufferings were known, heard, and ended, but
hundreds of unknown assaulted women still get beaten, raped and videotaped
daily in the Iraqi ministries and around the American bases.
Sectarian genocide and gynocide have horrified millions of women speechless
and paralyzed. At the same time, the occupation unleashed the freedoms of
religious legislators to abolish any possibility of constitutional rights
for Iraqi women and leave them vulnerable to misogynist religious norms of
their clans, thereby committing a new crime of humanity against generations
of unsuspecting female citizens to come.
In a time of unprecedented poverty and destitution in Iraq, the oil
resources are awarded to foreign companies in generous deals which deprive
25 million Iraqis of most needed wealth, meanwhile only rewarding a
minimal share to the ruling parties to be divided on an ethno-religious and
sectarian basis. This division, a first timer in Iraq, will only fuel the
civil war to higher and deadlier levels.
The occupation forces have chosen to support and empower the enemies of
women and freedoms in Iraq. Their relentless efforts to weaken and
destroy t he women of Iraq have hit the highest point of inhumanity and
barbarism. Nevertheless, the free women and people of Iraq can organize
their ranks and refuse these atrocities. They struggle for freedom and
equality to be achieved under a secular non-ethnic government in which the
aspirations of women, youth and workers are represented.
The Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) calls on this IWD upon the freedom loving millions around the world to
stand by us in this Dark Age of the New World Order. Do not watch in sorrow.
Come forward. Contact us and become part of a worldwide movement to end the
occupation and build a free secular egalitarian alternative in Iraq.
Long live freedom and equality. Our struggles continue.
For more information, please go to
Equality in Iraq
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Iraqi Women's Statement for International Women's Day