The Muslim Woman

What would a woman get if she dares to hold a professional job? Abduction, rape and murder, yes this is what she would receive at least in Iraq! Religious extremists in the southern Iraqi city of Basra are busy slaughtering the women folk who are going against their religious doctrines by stepping out of the four walls of their house just to earn their livelihood. In some parts of Baghdad, women were being prevented to go to the markets alone. Parents are frightened to send their daughters to school and university. They are constantly being subjected to threats, intimidation and even murder. Perpetrators tend to justify their inhuman deeds of killing a woman by leaving a piece of paper on her or dress her in indecent clothes. Atmosphere is saturated with threat till an extent that the women folk dare not move out in the streets without proper dress code. Grim figures suggest slaughtering of 42 women between July and September alone in the region this year. Abusers have created a kind of propaganda by painting graffiti on walls all across the streets. Women have been receiving warning, while there are cases, when the gunmen themselves are coming to their houses and slaughtering them, in front of their own kids. They are not in a position to spill out their outlook towards life, leave alone going out to work. They have been forced to breathe within a set paradigm of the chauvinistic ridden man made laws across Iraq by Islamist militants, both Sunni and Shia. They live in fear of their husbands, too, as women’s rights have been undermined by the country’s postwar constitution that has taken power from the family courts and given it to clerics. Lack of security, law and order has curtailed all aspects of women’s life, for them constructing a safe haven is nothing than a mirage in the arid desert of the province…a wasteland that would never expect a shower of rain. At least this is what an impression I could get from the contemporary times. Image

In the past five months more than 40 women have been killed in Iraq’s southern city of Basra after being accused of ‘un-Islamic’ behavior. Women have been threatened with dire punishment, should they wear make-up or step out without the Islamic headscarf known as hijab. Their mutilated bodies are dumped on the streets or in garbage dumps with notes attached to them accusing them of adultery and other ‘honor crimes’, thereby justifying their hideous crime of killing these women. Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, the Basra police chief said that they found the body of a woman with her six-year-old son, who was believed to have been conceived in an adulterous relationship. He added that the number of murdered women might be higher as many families don’t report these cases due to the fear of scandal or reprisals, or simply because they had doubts concerning the police’s ability to solve the case, as at times the police are too scared themselves, to conduct proper investigations. It is believed that the violence perpetrated against these women is carried out by Islamic militants. These perpetrators, who believe that they are spreading the message and instructions of Islam, are simply imposing their extremist views upon the community. They are forcing the women to follow a certain code-of-conduct depriving them of their very basic right, freedom. There have been instances where the religious extremists have intimidated and forced the women to cover their hair and bodies. The female students have also been threatened to not attend the exams without wearing their headscarves. Khalaf said that although they do not have enough information about the perpetrators, investigations and enquiries were still made to know more about the killings. source: yahoonews