The Muslim Woman

Leading Muslim reporter, Late Atwar Bahjat Unity is almost a non-existent phenomenon in Iraq for quite a long time now. The bygone days are no longer making a come back that’s what most of the Iraqi women has to say. Trying to rediscover a nation full of happiness, women in Iraq is practicing quite a stylish measure of conveying their disappointment at the disharmonious life. ALJAZEERA reports Iraqi women’s pendant revolution: From well-known faces at the media, for instance, anchors for the Iraqi TV stations are sporting necklaces with pendants that have the shape of the nation ‘Iraq’. This is not just a sentiment upheld by the women in the media groups; women all across the nation are sporting the pendants as a symbol for unity and solidarity. This map shaped pendant is on heavy demand now. The venture started long back after the Saddam Hussein’s Empire was overthrown in the year 2003, however, it came to limelight post the US backed invasions shook the entire nation. Another reason for sporting this pendant is to pay tribute to 30-year-old reporter, Atwar Bahjat, who lost her life on February 22, 2006 when she was reporting live from Shia shrine in Samarra.

On eleventh of December, UNICEF’s Iraq Office said that Iraqi women need imperative action to defend and uphold their rights. Iraq is a society that has traditionally celebrated and empowered women. However, today’s Iraqi women and girls are living in uniquely challenging times. Their rights in the home, school, workplace and political sphere are under threat. UNICEF delegate for Iraq, Roger Wright said, ‘Women should be equal partners in the future of Iraq, but their rights risk slipping away without positive action to protect them. Now more than ever, equal participation for women is fundamental to Iraq’s recovery’. The five most critical issues faced by the native women folk, which they have to take into account as given by UNICEF are as follows: 1. Since the bloodshed has left many homes without the sole bread earner, so the women have to face many hardships. Pushed to desperation, many women are hooking on to charity organizations to care for themselves and their children. 2. As the on going threats to girls, attending school is on rise so more and more families are being forced to choose between education and safety for their daughters. 3. The health of the women is also a declining factor that is because of poverty and wretched health care services. 4. Girls and women are living a miserable life because of ‘honor killing’ and ‘convenience marriages’. 5. Women’s representation in Iraq’s government is still excessively low accounting to only 25 %. However, in the coming years, UNICEF will support the Iraqi government to take three key steps for women: 1.amplifying national resources to improve services for women and children 2. initiating laws to safeguard women’s basic legal and social rights 3. encouraging women’s partaking in local and national decision-making Image Read

“During the war we lost everything. We even lost our honor.”, says Umm Hiba , an Iraqi women in Damuscus and daughter of a teenage daughter who dances at nightclubs and is a prostitute.Several Iraqi women who had to flee to neighbouring Syria after the men in their family were either killed or kidnapped. Bereft of jobs and armed militia knocking at their doors, they had no other option.

In Syria, the reason of survival drove them to the oldest profession of the world. These women find work at casinos or openly solicit clients on the streets. Syria, though committed to help, seems overwhelmed by the Iraqi exodus. According to the United Nations commissioner for refugees, Syria has near about 1.2 million Iraqis women. Syria does not have the necessary infrastructure to deal with such numbers. Cheaply available Iraqi prostitutes have made the flesh trade here a big business luring Arabs from neighbouring countries. Most visitors are from Saudi Arabia, just a six-hour drive through Jordan. Image credit New York Times