Lately, the Women’s Freedom Organization of Iraq has put forward an astounding report which projects the growing practice of public executions of women by Shiite militias.
One such ghastly incident of lynching has come to the fore, where a young woman was dragged by a wire wound around her neck to a close by soccer field and hung from the goal post. Then they perforated her body with bullets. Her brother rushed to defend her but unfortunately he was shot dead too.
According to the members of Organization of Women’s Freedom, nearly 30 women are put to death monthly for honor-related reasons.
It further stated that in comparison with the present situation, Iraqi women are worse off than they were under the Baathist regime in a country where, the women enjoyed some freedom and rights, which were not destined to women of the Middle East.
Lamenting before the scenario, they said that before the invasion of the US, the condition of native women were not so deplorable in fact, they were given certain privileges.
However, the status of women changed after the incursion. The United States gave prominence to a new group of leaders, most of who were associated with ultraconservative Shiite clerics. Among the Sunni minority, the quick disappearance of their once dominant political power led to a resurrection of religious identity. Consequently, the Kurds, celebrated for their history of resistance to the Iraqi dictator, were able to reclaim traditions such as honor killings, putting thousands of women at risk.
Iraqi sectarian conflict has intensified violence against women. Since, the presence of military troops in a region of conflict increases prostitution, violence against women and the potential for human trafficking.
Although many believed that intercessions in Afghanistan and Iraq would result in women liberation but the international women’s rights organizations were highly skeptical of the Bush administration’s claims from the start.
U.S. delegates in Iraq failed to listen to the voices of independent and secular Iraqi women leaders like Yanar Mohammed, co-founder of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, during the process of drafting the constitution. As a result, the Iraqi constitution elevated Islamic law over constitutional rights for matters pertaining to personal and family matters.
The human rights abuses that happened in Abu Ghraib insinuate that if they are left unchecked, they may affect thousands of innocent lives. After all, the United States has failed to protect Iraqi women.
