Many Iraqi women suffering, UN says

[Forkboy]

BAGHDAD - The vast majority of Iraqi women face domestic violence on a regular basis and many commit suicide because of it, the UN said yesterday.

Iraq and the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan should take measures to stop violence against women, including honor killings and genital mutilation, the United Nations mission in Iraq, known as UNAMI, said in a regular report on human rights.

"The sensitivity of Iraqi communities to issues concerning women is such that families are frequently not reporting to the authorities incidents of violence against women," it said.

To "escape the cycle of violence," many women turned to suicide.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/04/30/many_iraqi_women_suffering_un_says/

[sui generis]

1. curious

if that applies to gay women.

we need a unified stance on human rights, period.

[Forkboy]

2. "we need a unified stance on human rights, period."

:applause:

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. one of the benefits of the USA's version of "democracy"

.
.
.

But the USA's invasion had nothing to do with democracy

USA wanted another base in the ME besides Israel

Human lives and rights don't come into the USA's empire building considerations.

Wait a minute I'm wrong,

USA does consider those things

they(the dead civilians) don't count - "collateral damage" is the word for slaughter and genocide

(sigh)

[Creena]

4. Terrible.

It's sickening that suicide is their only escape. I wish they would include links to sites with suggestions on how to help these women. I know about UNIFEM and other organizations, but many people don't where to start.

[Forkboy]

5. Welcome to Du, Creena.

:toast:

[Creena]

6. Thanks.

And, thanks for posting about the situation. It's a travesty that needs more attention. NBC's Richard Engel recently did a report on an safe home for Afgan women facing the same problem: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/15/1895011.aspx

[niyad]

7. k & r for this most important topic

people have either forgotten, or didn't bother to know, that women had it better under saddam than currently

google "status of iraqi women under saddam"--one more crime to lay at the feet of bushco.

[Creena]

8. It's refreshing to read other people come to that same conclusion.

Here in Crazyville, I get called a terrorist for pointing that out.

Oh, and, thanks for the welcome in the other thread!

[niyad]

9. you are most welcome. pretty crazy here, as well, what with fungus, new life, etc

right up the road, and the little reichwingers just HATE anybody who doesn't think like them.

the elected officials around here (ALL repukes) hate the sound of my voice on the phone.

[NNN0LHI]

10. Recommended

[ShortnFiery]

11. During WAR it's always the women, children and old men who suffer the most.

If you wish to help "the women" (and children and old men) of both Iraq and Afghanistan, get our OCCUPYING military out of those two countries.

[Forkboy]

14. All to true.

Can't think of single example proving otherwise. Not one. :(

[whathehell]

17. Yeah...Except it's the same during Peace.

[Number23]

22. Exactly. This story is not about war, it's about culture.

It's about the thousand-year old culture of relationships between men and women in Iraq. Getting the US military out of Iraq means nothing in this regard.

[lucretia54]

12. "The world has yet to see a truly great and virtuous nation...

because in the degradation of women, the very foundations of life are poisoned at their source." - Lucretia Mott

[Forkboy]

15. That's a great quote.

[noiretextatique]

13. mission accomplished!

IRAQ: Saddam Better for Women
By Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Mar 29 (IPS) - Women were far better off under former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein, a women's group has found after an extensive survey in Iraq.

''Under the previous dictator regime, the basic rights for women were enshrined in the constitution,'' Houzan Mahmoud from the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq told IPS in an interview. The group is a sister organization of MADRE, an international women's rights group.

Under Saddam, she said, ''women could go out to work, university and get married or divorced in civil courts. But at the moment women have lost almost all their rights and are being pushed back into the corner of their house.''

The recent constitution which was written under the U.S. government's supervision is ''very backward and anti-women,'' Mahmoud said. ''They make Islam the source for law making, and the main official religion of the country. This in itself means Islamic Sharia law and according to this women will be considered second-class citizens and will have no power in deciding over their lives.''

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32693

[Forkboy]

16. My hatred for the last administration has no bounds.

:mad:

[noiretextatique]

18. likewise...for the misery they caused the iraqi people

they should rot in prison :grr:

[Number23]

23. The sexism that was brutally supressed under Saddam (along with everthing else)

has been released. And as usual, it's the women and children of the world who suffer first and most severely.

[MasonJar]

19. We, the good old USA, can take credit for this. No such things

happened under Saddam. Some societies function better under a dictator, obviously Iraq's did. As it turned out Saddam was less cruel than our own government. We used his prison and several more plus no telling how many undisclosed locations to perpetrate crimes far in excess of any dreamed of by Saddam and with total immunity...so far. The women of Iraq suffer because of American greed. Bush/Cheney/Exxon/Etcs. wanted the Iraqis' oil and they were going to get it. Shock and awe them they said. These are men and some women (Condi comes to mind) of no conscience of any kind. The deaths of 100s of 1000s of innocent Iraqis, the creation of an Islamic state where a secular state existed and the furtherance of misogynists in the governamce of a nation are our successes in Iraq. We, the American people, are culpable because even our new leadership does not demand justice and neither do we, the people...or it would be done!!!!!

[noiretextatique]

20. well said....we destroyed a functioning society

where women had more rights than most places in the middle east, and we are supporting an iraqi government that stripped women of all the rights they had under the evil saddam hussein. even gay people fared better under hussein's dictatorship. and for what?
we used public funds to destroy a country so private oil companies, and blackwater, and haliburton could make billions of dollars. truly sickening :puke:

[Number23]

21. It has to start at the grassroots level

Whatever steps the world wants Kurdistan and Iraq to do about this have to start at the grassroots. They have to begin with the people of Iraq.

No one else can bring about any change to this culture which has been in existence longer than any of us can truly even imagine.