For
up-to-the-minute information on issues relating to women
in Iraq:
Womens League for Peace and Freedom's news relating
to women in Iraq. |
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Act Together have a printed
leaflet that contains much useful information
(also published on this site) about the current situation in Iraq.
Contact us if you would like some for distribution.
Articles
and books
Iraqi Women: Untold
Stories from 1948 to the Present
by Nadje Sadig Al-Ali (founder
member of Act Together)
Zed Books, 2007
The war in Iraq has put the condition
of Iraqi women firmly on the global agenda. For years,
their lives have been framed by state oppression, economic
sanctions and three wars. Now they must play a seminal
role in reshaping their country’s future for the
twenty-first century.
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Nadje Al-Ali challenges the myths and misconceptions
which have dominated debates about Iraqi women, bringing a much
needed gender perspective to bear on the central political issue
of our time. She traces the political history of Iraq from post-colonial
independence, to the emergence of a women’s movement in
the 1950s and Saddam Hussein’s early policy of state feminism.
The book also discusses the increases in social conservatism,
domestic violence and prostitution, and shows that, far from
being passive victims, Iraqi women have been, and continue to
be, key political actors. Following the invasion and occupation,
al-Ali analyses the impact of Islam on women’s lives and
argues that US-led calls for liberation may in the long term
serve to oppress the women of Iraq further.
See
more on the book.
Read
review in Dar Al Hayat
Read
review in Le Monde diplomatique |
Women in Iraq:
Beyond the Rhetoric by Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola
Pratt, MERIP, Summer 2006
Dr
Nadje Al Ali's speech at the World Tribunal in Istanbul investigating
US war crimes in Iraq, June 2005
Blair made a pledge to
the Iraqis once
The suffering of my people must not be conveniently forgotten now
Haifa Zangana, 22 April 2005, The Guardian
So much for illusions
Despite the election, ordinary Iraqis face a daily struggle to survive
attacks, kidnappings and killings
Haifa Zangana, 7 March 2005, The Guardian
Iraq elections are not
free
Letter in The Guardian, 21 January 2005
Quiet, or I'll call democracy
Iraqi women were long the most liberated in the Middle East. Occupation
has confined them to their homes
Haifa Zangana, 22 December 2004, The Guardian
What drives the fighters
in flip-flops
Falluja is not unique. Collective punishment is escalating in Iraq
Haifa Zangana, 17 November 2004, The Guardian
Chaos, murder and mayhem
Kidnapping and killing is a daily reality in Iraq, but in the west the
atrocities go unrecorded and the dead are unnamed
Haifa Zangana, 25 October 2004, The Guardian
Iraqis have lived this
lie before
The British transfer of sovereignty in the 20s was equally meaningless
Haifa Zangana, 29 June 2004, The Guardian
Read Maysoon Pachachi's contribution to the Open
Democracy roundtable Iraq
in the Balance, 3 June 2004
I, too, was tortured in
Abu Ghraib
Iraqis did not struggle for decades to replace one oppressor with another
Haifa Zangana, May 11, 2004, The Guardian
Iraq's enemy within
The US-appointed governing council cannot deliver democracy
Haifa Zangana, April 10, 2004, The Guardian
Why Iraqi women aren't
complaining
Their secular family law is about to be overturned and placed under
religious control. So where's the outcry?
Haifa Zangana, February 19, 2004, The Guardian
The message coming from
our families in Baghdad
Haifa Zangana, April 3, 2003, The Guardian
Bombs will deepen Iraq's
nightmare
This war plan forces me to stand by the dictator who tortured me
Haifa Zangana, September 17, 2002, The Guardian
Iraq: war is not the
way
Iraqis in Exile, September 5, 2002, The Guardian
The
Impact of Economic Sanctions on Women in Iraq
Dr Nadje Al-Ali, 2001
Between
Dreams and Sanctions: Teenage Lives in Iraq
Dr Nadje Al-Ali and Yasmin
Hussein, 2001
Women,
Gender Relations and Sanctions in Iraq
Dr Nadje Al-Ali, 2001
Reports
April
2006: Iraqi Women Under Siege: A
Report by CODEPINK and Global Exchange shows that
from 1958 to the 1990s, Iraq provided more rights and freedoms
for women and girls than most of its neighbors. Though Saddam Hussein's
dictatorial government and 12 years of severe sanctions reduced
these opportunities, Iraqi women were active in all aspects of
their society. After the occupation, with the exception of women
in Iraqi Kurdistan, women's daily lives have been reduced to a
mere struggle for survival.
February 2005: Iraq:
Decades of suffering, Now women deserve better, a
report by Amnesty
International, shows that Iraqi
women continue to live with violence & fear. Women have been
targeted and abused by US-led forces and insurgents, many are
forced to stay at home, and they struggle economically. Female
Genital Mutilation, honour crimes and domestic violence have
been on the increase in the context of general violence and lawlessness.
July 2003: Climate
of Fear: Sexual Violence and abduction of Women and girls in Baghdad
by Human Rights Watch
Women's Teach-In - Antimilitarism, Fundamentalisms/Secularism
and Civil Liberties & Anti-Terrorism Legislation after September
11th 2001
Occasional Paper 14: WLUML (Published: November 2003), downloadable
from here
Papers from the 'teach-in' 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.
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