IRAQ: VIOLENCE AGAINST FEMALES ON THE RISE

While the US military “Surge” in Iraq has limited insurgent attacks in some parts of the country it has done little to halt “honor killings” or the rape of teenage girls and women. If First Lady Laura Bush’s claim that the fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women it appears that battle has been lost in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
In Iraq particular, “honor killings” and rape have become more widespread. Near Basra a 17-year-old girl was stabbed to death by her father because he believed she was infatuated with a British soldier. A 19-year-old was taken to a rural spot by her relatives and then beaten before being shot seven times because she had an unknown number on her cell phone. Last year, a killing that caused outrage was the public stoning to death of a girl by members of her tribe because she had dared fall in love with an outsider. It was estimated that almost 2,000 men from her tribe attended her beating and stoning and photos of the killing were captured on cell phones and later found their way to Internet sites.
In southern Iraqi cities like Basra, where Shiite militias dominate life, women are regularly murdered for not conforming to Islamic dress codes. Often they are beheaded and their bodies left on the street for people to see. The killings are carried out under the guise of Islamic Sharia Law and no effort is being made by the authorities to bring the culprits to justice.
In the Kurdish north of the country a government appointed unit was set up to investigate acts of violence against women but in many respects engrained cultural mores continue to limit prospects for change. In one instance, a father murdered his 12-year-old daughter because he suspected she was involved with an older neighbor. The increasing brutality against females young and old stands in stark contrast to the statement of President Bush in 2004, the year after the invasion of Iraq, when he declared that the “advance of freedom” had given women hope and new rights in the Middle East. He said the use of rape, which was prevalent during the Saddam era, had ended with the American occupation. Nothing was further from the truth. Rape is now one of the most under reported crimes against girls and women in Iraq. As of 2008, the overall plight of women in Iraq and also in Afghanistan has worsened, yet during the secular rule of Saddam Hussein Iraqi women were regarded as the most liberated in the Arab world and many were leading professionals both in business and education. A 1959 family statute gave them equal property and custody rights in divorce disputes and also allowed them to petition the courts if their husbands abused them. All of that changed with the fall of Saddam. Suddenly, the door opened to Shiite domination with the ever increasing specter of religious intolerance and a strict application of Islamic codes, many of which have their genesis in the religious domination of Iranian political life. Iraqi women, however, have quickly found themselves in a worse position than their Iranian counterparts because militias are enforcing Islamic codes while the central government in Baghdad displays little appetite for curbing strict adherence to Sharia Law.
Shiite militias are not alone in killing women. According to women’s rights organizations in the country, Sunni insurgents are just as likely to engage in honor killings. At the core of the problem is the Iranian influence with its roots in the Iranian Revolution, which led to the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini and subsequently the over arching role of clerics. Many of Iraq’s current leaders have close links to Iran and greater allegiance to Iranian values than American concepts of justice and freedom.
One group that has sought to highlight the plight of women is the OWFI – Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq. When it wrote to the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki several months ago, it described what women faced in just the southern part of the country, which it described as “no woman zones” “totally under the grip” of Islamist parties:
“Female physical appearance is not acceptable in the streets, educational institutions, or at work places. Although veiled and passive, death awaits women around street corners, in the market, and visits them inside their homes daily in the city of Basra. Although the top police official announced that 15 women are killed in the city of Basra every month, the hired ambulance drivers disclose that they pick up many bodies early every morning as they are paid to "clean" the streets. Since the 2003 occupation of Iraq, these cities were open land to "Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice- PVPV" Islamist militant squads, gangs and individuals. These groups have increased over the few years to positions of governmental officials, institutions, militias, self-appointed vigilantes and hired guns. They guard the university gateways from "evil" unveiled women. They crack down on mixed gatherings of students. They also detain disobedient students in assigned detainment and torture rooms. When a woman is killed, the only given justification is that she was promiscuous or adulterous. While in fact, the top of the female death toll list is occupied by PhD holders, professionals, activists, regular office workers, and then prostitutes. This PVPV campaign terrorizes the female population so as to restrain women into the domestic domain and end all female participation from the social and political scene.” According to the OWFI, as many as 4,000 women and girls have disappeared since the US invasion and many of them may have been trafficked into prostitution outside the country.
The true horror of the violence against young girls can best be seen in the brutal killing of 11-year-old Sara Jaffar Nimat in Kurdistan last August. She was beaten and stoned to death before her body was burned and dumped in an abandoned building. All evidence pointed to an honor killing. In many instances, families of victims like fifth-grader Sara are reluctant to claim the bodies of their children.
In the midst of all the talk about the surge it is easy to forget that the invasion of Iraq unleashed the potential for a society that may eventually be dominated by religious fanatics who see females as mere chattels. And for all the talk about freedom, it seems women in Afghanistan too have little to cheer when President Bush and his First Lady claim the war on terror has improved their rights and dignity.