Terror against women in Iraq
February 9th, 2008
By Gerardo Orlando
This is the “government” we are protecting in Iraq. It’s simplistic and misleading to argue that just because violence between the different ethnic and religious groups has declined we are somehow improving the situation in Iraq.
The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion — some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture.
Police chief Gen. Abdul Jalil Khalaf holds a book cataloging the dead.
1 of 3 The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other “rules” that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce.
“Fear, fear is always there,” says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. “We don’t know who to be afraid of. Maybe it’s a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I don’t know who to be afraid of.”
Her fear is justified. Iraq’s second-largest city, Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year — 79 for violation of “Islamic teachings” and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN, the news branch of the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
We have created a situation where religious extremists on both sides, Shia and Sunni, can impose their brutal rule over women and other Iraqis. It’s a disgrace.
February 9th, 2008 12:30
As the lads in Spinal Tap might have said, Iraq is a very sexy country, and I don’t see what’s wrong with that!
Make love not war!
February 9th, 2008 12:46
I had to comment here- GO -
The implication of what this article is saying is life for women pre-war was just rosy. Under SH I’m sure life was just as brutal and nothing would have changed if there was no war.
“We” did not create this situation, their culture did.
The decline in violence is a step, the removal of SH is another step. Will this culture ever be a shining example of democracy? Probably not in our lifetime. But if we did nothing there would never be any hope.
February 9th, 2008 14:50
Probably a good point, beating and abusing women is really just part of normal Arab life.
I have dated an Arab woman and the fact that I never haul off and beat the shit out of her, endears me to her. And she’s from Northern Africa. I suppose of women’s rights though were enough to go to war over, we should invade Saudi, Kuwait, Egypt, Marocco, Tunisia, and Alabama!
February 10th, 2008 12:54
The point isn’t that things were better in Iraq under Saddam, but we’ve spent billions and spilled American blood to improve things. Instead we traded a dictator for religious extremists.
The right tried to trumpet women’s rights as one of the justifications for this war. This is another example of why that was a pipe dream.