For the Women of Iraq, the War is Just Beginning

By Terri Judd

The women of Basra have disappeared. Three years after the
US-led invasion of Iraq, women’s secular freedoms - once the
envy of women across the Middle East - have been snatched
away because militant Islam is rising across the country.

Across Iraq, a bloody and relentless oppression of women has
taken hold. Many women had their heads shaved for refusing to
wear a scarf or have been stoned in the street for wearing
make-up. Others have been kidnapped and murdered for crimes
that are being labelled simply as "inappropriate behaviour".
The insurrection against the fragile and barely functioning
state has left the country prey to extremists whose notion of
freedom does not extend to women.

In the British-occupied south, where Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi
Army retains a stranglehold, women insist the situation is at
its worst. Here they are forced to live behind closed doors
only to emerge, concealed behind scarves, hidden behind
husbands and fathers. Even wearing a pair of trousers is
considered an act of defiance, punishable by death.

One Basra woman, known only as Dr Kefaya, was working in the
women and children’s hospital unit at the city university
when she started receiving threats from extremists. She
defied them. Then, one day a man walked into the building and
murdered her.

Eman Aziz, one of the first women to speak publicly about the
dangers, said:"There were five people on the death list with
Dr Kefaya. They were threatened ’If you continue working, you
will be killed’."

Many women are too afraid to complain. But, fearful that
their rights will be eroded for good, some have taken the
courageous step of speaking out.

Dr Kefaya was only one of many professional women murdered in
recent months. Speaking to The Independent near Saddam’s old
palace in the middle of Basra, Mrs Aziz, reeled off the names
of other dead friends. Three of her university class have
been killed since the invasion. "My friend Sheda and her
sister. They were threatened. One day they returned to their
house with two other women. They were all shot," she said.
Her language is chillingly perfunctory.

"And my friend Lubna, she was with her fiancé. They shot him
in the arm and then killed her in front of him," she
explained. Then there were the two sisters who worked in the
laundry at Basra Palace base. With a shrug, she briefly
detailed each life cut short.

Under Saddam, women played little part in political life but
businesswomen and academics travelled the country
unchallenged while their daughters mixed freely with male
students at university.

Now, even the most emancipated woman feels cowed.

A television producer Arij Al-Soltan, 27, now exiled, said:
"It is much worse for women in the south. I blame the British
for not taking a strong stand."

Sajeda Hanoon Alebadi, 37, who - like Mrs Aziz - has now
taken to wearing a headscarf, said: "Women are being
assassinated. We know the people behind it are saying we have
a fatwa, these are not good women, they should be killed."

Behind the wave of insurgent attacks, the violence against
women who dare to challenge the Islamic orthodoxy is growing.
Fatwas banning women from driving or being seen out alone are
regularly issued.

Infiltrated by militia, the police are unwilling or unable to
crack down on the fundamentalists.

Ms Alebadi said: "After the fall of the regime, the religious
extremist parties came out on to the streets and threatened
women. Although the extremists are in the minority, they
control powerful positions, so they control Basra."

To venture on the streets today without a male relative is to
risk attack, humiliation or kidnap.

A journalist, Shatta Kareem, said: "I was driving my car one
day when someone just crashed into me and drove me off the
road. If a woman is seen driving these days it is considered
a violation of men’s rights."

There is a fear that Islamic law will become enshrined in the
new legislation. Ms Aziz said: "In the Muslim religion, if a
man dies his money goes to a male member of the family. After
the Iran-Iraq war, there were so many widows that Saddam
changed the law so it would go to the women and children. Now
it has been changed back."

Mrs Alebadi estimated that as many as 70 per cent of women in
Basra had been widowed by the constant conflicts. "You see
widows on the streets begging at the intersections."

Optimists say the very fact that 25 per cent of Iraq’s
Provincial Council is composed of women proves women have
been empowered since the invasion. But the people of Basra
say it is a smokescreen. Any woman who becomes a part of the
system, they say, is incapable of engineering any change for
the better. Posters around the city promoting the
constitution graphically illustrate that view. The faces of
the women candidates have been blacked out, the accompanying
slogan, "No women in politics," a stark reminder of the
opposition they face.

Ms Aziz said: "Women members of the Provincial Council had
many dreams but they were told ’With respect, you don’t know
anything. This is a world of men. Your view is good but not
better.’ More and more they just agreed to sign whatever they
were told. We have got women in power, who are powerless."

Many of the British officers in Basra say they feel
"uncomfortable" with the situation but a spokesman for the
Foreign Office would only say: "As part of the new
government’s programme, they do say in their top 10 items to
be looked at that women constitute half of society and are
nurturers of the other half and, therefore, must take an
active role in building the society and the state. Their
rights should be respected in all fields."

In the villages around Basra, the shy women who peer round
doorways are uncomplaining. For one Marsh Arab, Makir Jafar,
the fact she has been given enough education to help her 10-
year-old son with his homework is enough. "Life is nice.
There is the river. I do not want for anything," she said.

There is a growing fear among educated women, however, that
the extreme dangers of daily life will allow the issue of
women’s oppression to remain unchallenged. In Mrs Kareem’s
words: "Men have been given a voice. But women will not get
their part in building this country."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world...