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Women in Occupied Iraq are facing enormous difficulties.
Their everyday lives are ones of instability and struggle as security,
basic services, healthcare, employment have all been affected by the
chaos of the occupation. And there is much long-term uncertainty, as
the occupying powers and Iraq Governing Council create measures that
will have serious impact not only on the economic and welfare aspects
of their future but on their status in society. Recently the Governing
Council tried to pass an order that would remove the equality with
men written onto the statute books in 1959 and give jurisdiction to
religion on vital issues affecting women.
After years of war and sanctions, women in Iraq
need to be given the opportunities to participate in building a real
democracy. While some women’s groups and initiatives are working
to empower women and improve their lives, the occupying powers are
failing to protect women now and failing to adequately consider their
concerns in their longer-term plans for Iraq.
Speakers:
Haifa Zangana - an Iraqi-born novelist
and painter and former political prisoner of the Ba'ath regime
Why Iraqi women don't give a damn about Governing Council
resolutions
Roland Huguenin-Benjamin - International
Committee of the Red Cross Spokesperson in London
Working with children and women: from an Iraq ransomed by sanctions
to an Iraq destroyed by war
Christine Chinkin - Professor
of International Law, LSE
Iraqi Women and International Law
This meeting is organised by Act Together: Women’s
Action on Iraq and LSEStaffagainstWar.
Summary of the points made by the speakers
Roland Huguenin-Benjamin - International Committee of the Red Cross
Spokesperson in London
Roland spoke about some of the recent experience for women in Iraq.
The Iran/Iraq war meant that many men were away from home for many
years or never came back, leading to serious social disruption but
also women were able to get jobs they would not have been able to previously.
It also led to further legal equalities.
Many prisoners of war from the Iran/Iraq
conflict were only repatriated after the Gulf War but not all had
come back by then. Women didn’t
know if their husbands or sons were still alive. In 1998, a day before
the bombing by US/UK forces, some (a few hundred) Iraqi prisoners were
released after 18 years. In March 2003 the same thing happened with
what were almost the last prisoners – after 23 years as prisoners
of war in Iran. Women have never known if their men have been gone
for good.
From the early 1990s the sanctions created
a situation of fear and were also very disruptive socially - breaking
down quite a homogenous
society with a low crime rate. Women’s lives changed as a result
of sanctions. The younger generation only know these changed values.
Children had little to read. The ICRC launched a magazine for children
and imported journals. A high number of children have had to go out
to work because of the sanctions. Their memories are those of death
and deprivation.
Iraq has returned to the times of the beginning
of the 20th century – when
Britain was last there as an occupier.
Roland read part of an email from a young
Iraqi woman of 25 years who works as an interpreter. She talked of
the lack of political education
and how people have turned to religion. Many women activists in Iraq
now don’t have Iraqi nationality although they may be of Iraqi
birth. Political education and interaction needs to be developed but
this is impossible while the occupation continues.
Christine Chinkin - Professor of International Law
Christine outlined all the regimes of international
law to which Iraq is subject – the Geneva Convention, criminal law, Security Council
Resolutions (about war, sanctions and war reparations). International
law has not served Iraq well and there are also gendered consequences.
The so-called ‘end of conflict’ has not led to any negotiated
peace process to move things forward. There is no framework for the
future and no clear legal obligations in Iraq.
The principles that should be paramount
are democracy and security – the
basis for sustainable development within a framework of the rule of
law and human rights. All these aspects have gender dimensions. What
does democracy mean for women? Participation, consultation and ongoing
representation – the proposed constitution is not good enough.
With regard to security, normal social institutions have been destroyed
and there is increasing violence against women. Sustainable development
also has gender dimensions.
There are assumptions being made – including
that a gender neutrality to current developments exists or that the
woman issue can be dealt
with later.
In the late 1990s the UN addressed these issues in Resolution 1325
which created binding requirements which are not currently being satisfied
by the lip-service being spoken regarding Iraq. 1325 needs a positive
implementation but it has never actually been implemented anywhere.
There are also obligations to be considered
under International Humanitarian Law, the Women’s Convention and the Economic and Social Rights
Convention. 175 countries are party to the Women’s Convention
(including the UK, but not the US) and the committee of the convention
has a broad membership across the world. There is also the Convention
on the Rights of the Child to which 191 countries have signed (but
not the US).
Haifa Zangana - an Iraqi-born novelist and painter and former political
prisoner of the Ba'ath regime
Haifa spoke about the Governing Council – its 25 members are
unelected and it is protecting the US against Iraqis. Women are refusing
to work with the IGC so having a quota in that kind of situation would
not make any difference to women’s representation. Political
parties are competing to attract there share of the women’s quota – regardless
of their qualifications.
Women and children are the main victims
of the security situation. Each house has a right to own a gun. The
going rate of compensation
if killed by the US is currently $500. While Haifa was in Iraq early
in 2004, 2 girls were kidnapped – one 9 years old and the other
a secondary school student.
There are severe problems with water and
fuel for homes and healthcare is poor with filthy hospitals, few
beds, no blankets or sheets, flooded
toilets. Doctors are also being attacked but are working very hard.
Rubbish is piling up as high as houses. In the pharmacy owned by Haifa’s
brother, people came in only being able to afford one of the medicines
they had been prescribed. Many children have chest infections. Schools
may have no toilets while they have been given no more than a lick
of paint by foreign contractors - a proper job is not done. There are
still no books and the same old photocopies are being used with various
things blacked out on them. There are estimated to be one million children
outside of the school system.
Woman are particularly affected by unemployment
- 72 % of Iraqi women were in the public sector but there is no public
sector now. To gain
employment you need a recommendation letter from a political party
in the IGC which many are not able to get – a situation reminiscent
of the old regime. Recently there was a demonstration by women farmers
demanding fuel. As subsidies are reduced they will have to learn to
compete. Costs of pesticides and fertilisers have shot up. There are
also unexploded cluster bombs on the land.
There are also many women in prison – mainly Abu Ghraib – women
sleep wearing their clothes in case of a visit by the US in the middle
of the night. Some have been taken instead of men as hostages.
There are some causes for hope – a gallery started by a woman,
a woman lawyer fighting compensation cases, the future involvement
of the UN, the Centre for Human Rights Studies – encouraging
young people to come but not many women attending yet.
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