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New Iraq...Oppressed Women
By Afif Sarhan
Uruknet
July 27, 2008Mariam believes her story symbolizes the new reality in post-invasion Iraq, where women are being harassed, and even attacked, for nottoeing the line.
"In Iraq now if you don’t follow the law, you will be killed, have your face burned by acid or raped," says Mariam, not her real name. The 34-year-old biologist became a victim of anti-women violence five months ago. She was walking in a local market of a Baghdad suburb when her face and head were burned by acid, in an apparent punishment for not wearing a veil. The scars were so deep in her face and soul that she has since left her job and locked herself in her house refusing to see friends or relatives.
According to advocacy groups, women in Iraq are now being threatened by individuals and groups to either adhere to a religious code of dressing or face punishment. "Trousers are just a dream and even sandals have become dangerous to be used in some neighborhoods," says May Mohammed, a Baghdad-based woman activist. Mohammed, who has suffered four attacks since 2005, notes that violence against woman result from many, different reasons. "Women are dying for being from a different sect, for helping other women, for working outside their homes, for not wearing clothes according to some groups' desires or for not accepting sexual services exchange."
Amnesty International has sounded the alarm over the increasing violence toward women in Iraq, saying abductions, rapes and honor killings are on the rise. In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, as many as 133 women were killed last year -- 79 for alleged violations of Islamic teachings and 47 in honor killings, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. A World Health Organization survey conducted in 2006/2007 found that 21.2 percent of Iraqi women had experienced physical violence.
New Iraq
Advocacy activists lament that anti-women violence goes unchecked in new Iraq. "No one is doing anything to help us," says Mohammed, the woman activist. "The government and the local police are turning a blind eye to the daily violence which includes even aggression inside homes or honour killings."Women are living in fear." She believes that women have been much worse off since the 2003 US-led invasion. "Instead of having freedom after invasion, women have become prisoners of zealots."Hanan Khalil, an aid worker and activist, agrees. She says that several years ago, she used to watch the news of women situation in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. "I was shocked and thankful this was so far from our reality," she recalls. "Now we are suffering the same. "The only difference is that here in Iraq each militia, group or zealot community has its own religious law."
Mariam, the traumatized biologist, says that after being attacked by extremists, she has become disillusioned with religion. "When I was young, I always wanted to wear a headscarf… and it was my choice. "But today, for being forced to it, it has lost any religious meaning and I put it to survive rather than follow a religious teaching."
Muslim scholars, however, affirm that the actions of extremist groups terrifying women can not be justified by religion.” I believe that God is the only one who has the right to punish anyone who doesn’t follow his orders," maintains Sheikh Adel Abdel-Ghaffour, a mosque imam in the Baghdad district of Adhamiyah.
"No one has the right to hurt or kill someone for not following religious laws," he insists. Imam Abdel-Ghaffour warns that the actions of such groups would only tarnish the face of Islam. "They are just giving more reasons for violence and discrimination."
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