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Current
events and activities
Open Shutters
10 March 2008, 6-8:30pm
Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS, Russell Square, London
Act Together: Women’s Action
for Iraq invites you to join us in marking International
Women’s Day 2008.
In the context of the ongoing occupation
and escalating violence against women in Iraq, Act Together
organized an event to share experiences and stories about
and by Iraqi women. Presented werephotos and narratives by
a group of 8 Iraqi women – and a six year old child – who
participated in a unique creative event in the spring of 2007.
Using digital photography, the women set out at considerable
risk to make deeply personal and emotional photo stories of
their lives in Iraq, now.
The event was sponsored by the Centre
for Gender Studies, SOAS.
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Also...
See more on Act Together's involvement
with the CODEPINK initiative - Women Say No To
War
In addition to raising
consciousness about the current situation of women in Iraq, regular
meetings and participation in numerous events, our current activities
include the organisation of a WOMEN'S LIBRARY AND STUDY CENTRE
in Baghdad.
We are also promoting GRASSROOTS
ORGANISATIONS WORKING IN IRAQ THAT NEED SUPPORT. See
here for the list
In March 2003, we mounted an exhibition called
Our Life in Pieces: Objects and Stories from Iraqis in Exile.
Information about it can be found here.
We are now developing a PROJECT ABOUT THE EXPERIENCES OF PEOPLE
IN IRAQ UNDER OCCUPATIONwhich will take the form of a public
performance, publication and possible exhibition. We are currently
calling for submissions to the project. See
more.
Recent
events and activities
Vigil and conference to mark International
Women’s Day, March 2007
Vigil: Thursday 8 March 2007,
5-7pm
Place: Statue of Edith Cavell, Trafalgar Square, Central London
See here
for details and organisations
Conference:Time: 9 March 2007,
6-9pm
Venue: SOAS, Khalili lecture Theatre (nearest tube Russell Square)
United Not Divided For Women's
Rights In Iraq
Speakers and panelists include: Cynthia
Cockburn (Women in Black), Jean Lampert (MEP), Houzan Mahmoud
(Organisation for Women's Freedom in
Iraq), Souad Al-Jazaeiry (Iraqi Women's League), Shoshan Lamassol (Assyrian
Women's Human Rights), Nadia Mahmoud (Middle East Centre for
Women’s Rights & Nadje Al-Ali (Act Together: Women's Action
for Iraq)
See
here for more details
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Women's Rights Under Attack: Occupation,
Constitution and Islamist Extremism, July 2006
Act Together: Women's
Action for Iraq is hosting Iraqi women’s rights
activist Sundus Abass, Director of Women in Leadership
Institute, Baghdad. Sundus Abass is a leading women’s
rights activist in Iraq and has been involved in the
campaign around the constitution organised by a network
of 37 Iraqi women’s organisations.
Act Together will organize several events
that will provide a platform for Sundus Abass as
well as other Iraqi women’s rights activists. Suad
Al-Jazairy just returned from a 5 months’ visit
to Iraq where she got involved in the women’s movement
and focused on raising women’s issues within the Iraqi
media. She also supported Sundus and the Iraqi Women’s
Network in the campaign around the personal status laws. Mubajel
Baban, an Iraqi exile who has been living in London
since the 1970s, was involved in the drafting of the 1959 constitution
and is able to shed light on the political and social spaces
available for women in the 1950s as opposed to now.
Public events: SOAS,
17 July 6:30-9:30pm, Khalili Theatre
House of Commons, 19 July 6-7.30pm, with Clare Short, MP. Committee Room
9, St Stephens entrance
see here for more
info on the events and what you can do
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International Widows Day 23 June 2006
Silent Vigil on the steps of St Martin's in the Field, Trafalgar
Square in Support of Iraqi Widows
According to official
and NGO sources, more than 90 Iraqi women become widows each
day due to continuing
violence across
the country. In other words, far over 90 Iraqi men die daily
from the violence caused by the occupation forces, sectarian
tensions and insurgents. Although few reliable statistics are
available on the total number of widows in Iraq, the Ministry
of Women’s Affairs says that there are at least 300,000
in Baghdad alone, with hundreds of thousands more throughout
the country. (UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs,
April 2006).... read more and a report
and pictures of the event
Supported by: Act Together- Women’s
Action on Iraq; Iraqi Women’s
League; Organisation for Women’s Freedom in Iraq; Iraqi
Women for Peace and Democracy; Middle East Centre for Women's
Rights; Hope Medical & Educational Aid; Widows for Peace
and Democracy; Women’s International League for Peace
and Freedom; Stop the War Coalition; Iraqi/International Stop
Depleted Uranium-IXDU; Code Pink; Voices in the Wilderness;
Justice not Vengeance; International Network of Contemporary
Iraqi Artists- iNCiA; Tony Benn; Kamil Mahdi; Sami Ramadani.
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MEETING: Playing
with Our Lives:
The Realities for Women in Iraq and Afghanistan
22 May 2006, 18:30-21:30, Khalili
Lecture Theatre, SOAS, London
Act Together: Women’s
Action on Iraq invites you to a film, a series of talks
and discussions about the realities of women’s
lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. We want to go beyond the
political rhetoric and fill a gap in the current media
coverage. See more
details here
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Meeting
at the European Social Forum
Workshop 846: Saturday
16 October 2004, 9-11am, University of London
Union, Malet Street, London W1, room 3A
The Impact of War and Occupation
on Women in Iraq
Speakers:
Caroline Simpson: Who are we?: Brief history and activities
of Act Together
Dr Nadje Al-Ali, Institute of Arab, Islamic Studies, University
of Exeter: Women and gender relations during the regime of
Saddam Hussein and the impact of economic sanctions
Maysoon Pachachi, Iraqi film-maker: Doing a documentary in
occupied Iraq” - Showing of film clips
Haifa Zangana, Iraqi-Kurdish novelist: The impact of war and
occupation on women in Iraq
Nadia Hamdan, Red Cross Iraq: Personal
experiences during war and occupation
For details of other Iraq related seminars
at the ESF, see here
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Meeting: What's Happening
to Women in Occupied Iraq?
A meeting held on 15 March 2004 at
the LSE
Speakers included
Haifa Zangana - an Iraqi-born novelist and painter and
former political prisoner of the Ba'ath regime, Roland Huguenin-Benjamin
- International Committee of the Red Cross Spokesperson in London,
and
Christine Chinkin - Professor of International
Law, LSE. See a report of the speeches |
Lobbying: This occupation
is a catastophe for Iraqi women
See more on the very serious
effect that the lack of security in Iraq under the occupation is
having on women's lives.
See the letter to UK Minister for Women,
Patricia Hewitt. Please use this letter as a basis for your own
to write to Patricia Hewitt about the serious issues affecting women
in Iraq under the occupation. September 2003 |
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OUR LIFE
IN PIECES
Objects and Stories from Iraqis in Exile
An exhibition held in London, March 2003.
See here for details
and to view the on-line document of a selection
of the objects, stories and images. |
12 YEARS OF WAR & SANCTIONS:
DEATH & DISEASE BY DIRTY WATER
IMAGINE YOUR LIFE WITHOUT CLEAN WATER
NO
MORE BOMBS ON THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ
A street action about the impact of war and sanctions on access
to clean, safe water for the Iraqi people. See our leaflet
for more information and to print off to send to the Government.
Contact us for more information.
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The 12th anniversary of the 1991 Gulf War
We took part in a meeting on 17 January
2003 to commemorate this date.
Organised by Act Together, Voices
in the Wilderness UK and ARROW
Women's Teach-In - Antimilitarism, Fundamentalisms/
Secularism and Civil Liberties & Anti-Terrorism Legislation after
September 11th 2001
Organised by Act Together, Southall
Black Sisters, Women Against Fundamentalisms, Women in Black (London),
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and WLUML,
held on 8 September 2002 at the School of Oriental and African Studies
in London, UK. Read
the papers from the teach-in.
We are
not powerless
In June 2002, we held a meeting in conjunction with the
Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies to discuss how to campaign,
organize and raise awareness on a variety of issues. Speakers from Act
Together, Voices in the Wilderness, Women in Black and
Palestine Solidarity Campaign shared their experience and information
with the audience.
Regular
activities
Lobbying MPs and writing to the Press
We
encourage people to write to their, and other, MPs and also to the press.
Not only does this remind them that there are many many people in the
UK who are against the economic sanctions on Iraq but it is also a chance
to give them information that is not easily available or publicly known.
It is particularly important to write at times when changes in policy
are being made.
What
you can do
British troops are still stationed
in Iraq. We need to demand that the British government fulfills its
responsibilities under
international law to deal with the urgent issues in Iraq: women’s
security, children and women’s health and economic policies which
currently only impoverish the population. We need to demand that the
UK government opposes any attempt to wrest women’s hard-won legal
rights from them.
Attend our meetings or those of other anti-occupation groups around
the country.
Join our mailing list and
those of groups (see here)
Invite a woman from Act
Together to address your group
Organise activities to inform
people (we can advise or help as you wish)
Write to the Rt Hon Ruth Kelly
MP, Cabinet Minister for Women, reminding her that as an occupying
power, Britain is required by the Geneva Convention
to protect civilians, and as a signatory to CEDAW, the Women’s
Convention, is obliged to promote the interests of Iraqi women.
Ask
your MP to request information from the Ministry of Defence, the
Foreign Office, and the Prime Minister,
regarding their specific activities to protect women and girls in
Iraq and promote their rights.
Support our work financially
- we need to fund campaign activities such as producing leaflets and
organising events.
Donate
to a women’s organisation inside Iraq (see
here for more information on organisations).
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