The Muslim Woman

Violence in Iraq has escalated refugee crises, which is also creating instability in the province. The dislodged women, children and youth are becoming more susceptible to exploitation and abuse. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, tens of thousands of Iraqis are fleeing the country every month and majority of the displaced are women and children. Carolyn Makinson, executive director of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children asserted, ‘the rampant insecurity within Iraq and the lack of humanitarian assistance in neighboring countries, puts women and children at great risk of abuse. There are already reports of Iraqi women and young girls forced into prostitution or sex to survive and children forced into labor and other forms of exploitation’. Syria and Jordan are apparently, becoming inundated with the influx of refugees and so have placed certain restrictions on the services provided to them. Education for children is becoming a major cause, firstly, because of the lack of accommodation and secondly, the high affordable prices of private schools. Syria allows Iraqi refugee children to attend public school but families often cannot afford the supplies and school uniforms their children need. Scores of refugee families are experiencing financial crunch. Generally, they cannot legally work and have no way to support themselves and their families. Women who cannot provide for their families are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. To guarantee protection of Iraqi refugees and internally displaced Iraqis and to help ease the great strain on countries receiving refugees, the United States and international community must significantly increase its funding for humanitarian assistance programs and regular monitoring of the allocated funds is too required. Image Read

Throughout the world, women are victims of violence on a daily basis whether in the context of peace or in conflict. Perpetrators may be officials of the state, armed opposition groups or individuals – including family members. Women in Muslim countries have given numerous testimonies of their bleak and wretched life conditions. Finding no way out, they prefer to self immolate. And reasons coming to the fore are domestic abuse, forced marriage and other misogynistic social customs. Testimony gathered by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has postulated how women have been brutally ill-treated by their family members. And that the trend is mounting up in the province. Reliable nationwide statistics are not available. Many families cover up what happened because of shame, while a lack of medical care and government services mean many such cases are never officially recorded. Needs a re-think Afghanistan is still facing an internal armed conflict and is ruled by a fragile government. Condition of women has hardly improved even after the fall of Taliban regime. Cases of violence are generally kept secret in rural areas but if the victim or family chooses to complain, tribal Jirgas or local councils are convened to resolve it. There is a huge gap between the reality on the ground and the ‘remarkable progresses’ claimed by western diplomats who sit in fortified compounds behind guards and concrete blocks and who never leave Kabul. The only area in which the country could really be said to have made remarkable progress is in growing the poppy and ‘violence against women’. End of the Taliban was meant to be like this? Image Read

It is routine work for 43 year old Helen Rawlins. For years now she finds peace saving women forced into marriages. She knows the way the cruel world acts upon their daughters. She wants a change. She might not be able to change the mentality of the thousands who believe in what they call tradition, but she surely has been able to give a peaceful life to the girls who do not want to surrender to the ‘situation’. For the British Government, a forced marriage is a breach in human rights. As far as arranged marriage is concerned, it is acceptable if both partners agree to it. Most of the girls Rawlins attend to are shockingly very young. Early twenties, and some even legally not of marriagable age. Thankfully for the girls in Pakistan, mjany have found a way to use their burka to conceal a mobile phone- their tool to call for freedom. The Forced Marriage Unit operates from London. In Pakistan though, Helen Rawlins leads a team with concent of the Pakistan Authorities. It is a sigh of relief for girls who have supportive boyfriends to fight for them and bail them out. For others, it is a struggle alone. In Islamabad Khalida Salimi runs a shelter for women wanting to lead a life away from violence and forced marriages. Image Via: TheAge