Living in Fear: The Challenges Women in Iraq Face Everyday

Iraq has been torn apart by decades of war. Conflicts religiously, politically, and economically have destroyed nearly everything in this once prospering nation. Since the US invasion of troops in 2003 Iraq has been in an ongoing conflict for almost 15 years.
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Image from the Iraq war, which has resulted in immense chaos giving rise to violence and extremism across the nation.

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The resulting chaos gave rise to growing insecurity, lawlessness, and an upsurge in religious extremism. Immense backlash against women’s rights and feminist activists was apparent as violence and religious extremism increased dramatically. This violence has caused the disappearance of women from the public sphere as in many places women are not allowed to work or even go outside their home without wearing a niqab or being accompanied by a male family member. Women are also frequently denied basic rights including the right to vote or get an education.  But those of those do manage to get an education, many more men are among them than women. Today, 36% of Iraqi women are illiterate while only 11% of Iraqi men are. Girls are also less likely than boys to continue their education beyond the primary school level, and their enrollment numbers drop sharply after that.
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Violence against women has become a huge problem in the country with an estimated 10,000 women being arrested and sold into labor annually. Women frequently face domestic violence with all forms of physical and mental abuse. However, many of these cases go unreported due to fears of bringing shame to their family due to social stigmatization. Shokhan Ahmad, the director of Women Legal Assistance Organization declared, “Every day a woman is killed in Iraq … but the authorities are not really interested in handling the murderer.” Without any support from their families nor the authorities women are given no option besides looking the other way at the violence and hoping that they are not next.

Image from an Iraq school, the pupils are made up of almost entirely men which is reflective of the disproportionate amount of men who get an education compared to the few women who do.
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The place where women’s rights is clearly the worst in Iraq is Kurdistan. In this area are some of the worst literacy rates and poorly educated citizenry in the entire world. Reported issues in Kurdish society include genital mutilation, honor killings, and domestic violence. Women here are treated in many ways like property. They have been increasingly used as a bargaining tool or gift among tribes, while forced marriages, kidnappings, and honour-related crimes have increased drastically. They are not allowed to make their own decisions regarding sexuality or husbands and arranged marriages are very common. Women who are brave enough to make their own decisions with marriage are often victims of violence including beatings and killings. However these reports have in the past fallen on deaf ears due to women’s underrepresentation in politics. Rencently, Iraq has installed a quota system to try and increase women representation in government. Today 25% of parliaments 330 seats are reserved for women. While seemingly the solution to help solve women across the countries issues the quota system has not proven as successful as many had hoped. Women representatives have failed to enact any significant change due to their inability to change the minds of their male competitors. However women’s rights groups have started to make a significant impact in turning the lives of women in this country around. The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq which started in 2003 works to defend full social equality between men and women and fights Islamic fundamentalism. It concentrates its activities against religious extremism and sharia law and against abduction and murder of young women in honour killings.

​A short video: Zaman’s story - The story of a young girl and her family who were forced to flee because of the war, detail the dangers and violence they have experienced.

​In addition to the OWFI in 2011 on International Women’s Day a coalition of 17 Iraqi women’s rights groups formed the National Network to Combat Violence Against Women in Iraq. The Network’s focus is on advocating for women’s rights and protecting them from all kinds of violence. Groups like these have continued to grow recently and become more apparent spreading hope for change in the future of Iraq and to hopefully one day become an equal society among both men and women.

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Sources:
https://alshahidwitness.com/activists-iraq-domestic-violence/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re7sOHx6-R8
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://cdn.britannica.com/s:300x300/99/98299-004-E4DC6E2D.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.britannica.com/event/Iraq-War&docid=DguNFovOCtsDCM&tbnid=MYYkCkEPp4nyCM:&vet=1&w=300&h=197&source=sh/x/im#h=197&imgdii=coSLgiQhcimuDM:&vet=1&w=300
https://images.app.goo.gl/sjeG2DgnVjb8z3Un6