28.05.2008 - Source: Amnesty International

Violence against women (42 women killed in Basra; death threats force women into unemployment) ("Annual Report 2008") [ID 23524]

"Violence against women increased and many were forced to leave their jobs after receiving death threats or to seek refuge abroad. In Basra, some 42 women were reportedly killed between July and September by Shi’a armed groups vying for control of the area. In most governorates women were increasingly threatened by armed men if they failed to observe a strict dress code. Reportedly, domestic violence and “honour killings” were on the rise and increasing sectarianism put at risk women married to men from another sect."

Document(s): Open document

11.2007 - Source: Gesellschaft für Bedrohte Völker

Situation of Yezidi women (special report, in German) ("Die Yezidi im Irak") [ID 22015]

Document(s): Open document

08.06.2007 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Northern Iraq: Law requires women to have male guardian sign their passport application ("Kurdish Women Resent New Passport System") [ID 20675]

"For years, the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have overlooked a piece of Iraqi legislation which states a woman who applies for a passport first has to have her father, uncle or brother’s written permission. In the past, women in this part of the country simply applied and were given a passport without fuss. But the introduction of the new G edition passport in March 2007 – which is electronically read and difficult to forge - means that all passports are now issued on a special printing machine in Baghdad where the law is enforced."

Document(s): Open document

06.2007 - Source: Freedom House

Public security for Iraqi women remained a major problem in 2006 ("Freedom in the World 2007") [ID 20727]

"The constitution promises Iraqi women equal rights under the law, and they are guaranteed 25 percent of the seats in the legislature. While women comprised 32 percent of the TNA, the portion dropped to 25 percent after the December 2005 elections. Public security for Iraqi women remained a major problem in 2006. Women who hold jobs, attend university, or go out in public unveiled were frequently harassed, and in some cases killed, by radical Islamist groups of both major sects."

Document(s): Open document

13.12.2006 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Conflicting opinions exist within the government on how female prisoners are treated; according to the Minister of Women's Affairs and local NGOs, female prisoners are held in appalling conditions, often without charge, and are sometimes raped and tortured ("Appalling conditions of women prisoners disputed") [ID 18196]

Document(s): Open document

11.12.2006 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Aid agencies estimate that thousands of parents do not send their daughters to school for cultural reasons and because of the general insecurity ("Alia'a Haydar, Iraq "I want go to school and learn how to write"") [ID 18199]

Document(s): Open document

06.12.2006 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Iraqi women have been increasingly subjected to violence, rape, death and restriction of movement since a deterioration of security followed the US-led invasion of late 2003, according to an international women's rights NGO ("Najjet Muhammad, Iraq "I cannot stand the beatings any more"") [ID 18205]

Document(s): Open document

20.06.2006 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Risk upon return for women with "Western" way of living even if they are staying with family members; threat may be posed by family members, in any case the family is not in a position to offer effective protection ("Stellungnahme vom 20.6.2006 an RA Waldmann-Stocker, Göttingen: Aktuelle Situation von Frauen im Irak") [ID 18039]

Document(s): Open document

03.05.2005 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Women’s Rights Under Scrutiny / legal position of women ("original document (English)") [ID 10327]

"New parliament is expected to debate legislation that diminishes the status of women. By Aso Akram and Niaz Muhammed in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 123, 03-May-05) When Shanaz Osman was asked to be a witness for a friend’s marriage, the judge asked her to find another woman to be a co-witness or stand down and allow a man to perform the role instead. Under Iraqi personal status law, certain civil legal proceedings recognise a woman as being worth only half as much as a man. Accordingly, Osman needed to find another woman to be considered as equal to one man. In the end, her sister accompanied her to the marriage service. "I'm surprised by the incorrectness of the law,” said Osman. “As a woman, I’m considered to be half a witness for some legal issues, while other legal proceedings consider me to be a full witness."

Personal status legislation, which deals with issues such as marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance and other related topics, follows traditions laid down in Islamic law. In many family-related proceedings, a woman is considered to have half the status of a man. In criminal cases, however, male and female witnesses are acknowledged as equals. When family members die, women are eligible for only half the inheritance that their male relatives receive. Zhian Ali was awarded half the estimated value of her father’s estate, even though she spent a large part of her salary buying appliances and furniture for the family’s new home. “I did not even get half the money I spent on the house,” she said. The personal status law is one of many issues that will be considered when parliamentarians begin drafting a permanent constitution, a key function of the new National Assembly. Last year, plans to annul the controversial legislation were put on hold by the interim Iraqi Governing Council.

The outgoing human rights minister Baktiar Amin said that dealing with the personal status law would be a daunting task for Iraq’s lawmakers. “Striking the right balance between society’s traditions and norms on one hand, and human rights and civil liberties on the other will be the main challenge for those drafting the constitution,” said Amin. There’s likely to be strong resistance to a change in the law. Soran Mahwi, a lawyer, is among those who do not feel it’s unfair. He argues that when a man marries a woman, he has to support her. Therefore, when his father dies he should be entitled to more of the estate than female members of the family.

Advocates of a reform of the legislation say that with the drafting of a permanent constitution there’s never been a better opportunity to lobby for change. "Rights must be fought for. They are not given,” said Sairan Abdu-Rahman, a female lawyer. “We women jurists must be assertive in demanding our rights. We must fight the biggest part of this battle, because we have more legal awareness than other women." Aso Akram and Niaz Muhammed are IWPR trainees in Sulaimaniyah."

Document(s): original document (English)

04.2005 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

On current situation of women in Iraq, legal situation, state protection (position paper by UNHCR Berlin office, in German) ("Anmerkungen von UNHCR zur gegenwärtigen Situation von Frauen im Irak") [#31620],  [ID 10328]

Document(s): Open document

21.03.2005 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Focus on threats against and killings of progressive women ("original document (English)") [ID 10362]

"Women activists have been suffering since the last war in Iraq because of calls for improved rights and equality with men in this Muslim country, according to a report by the local Women's NGO association. During Saddam Hussein's regime, women could dress less conservatively in the big cities and would not be punished, according to female activists. But now women say they are no longer safe and decapitated female corpses have begun turning up in recent weeks with notes bearing the word "collaborator" pinned to their chests, according to Colonel Subhi al-Abdullilah, a senior police investigator."

Document(s): original document (English)

08.03.2005 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Iraq: Focus on women's rights ("original document") [ID 10329]

Information about situation of women in Iraq, sexual violence, honour killings, poor security and lack of protection

Document(s): original document

22.02.2005 - Source: Amnesty International

Report documenting how women and girls were targeted directly because of their gender and how they suffered disproportionately through decades of government repression and armed conflict ("Iraq: Decades of suffering, Now women deserve better.") [#29133],  [ID 10330]

Document(s): Open document
Open document

09.12.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Northern Iraq: Major survey of Kurdish women ("original document") [ID 10331]

"Looking at Kurdish society in northern Iraq, it's not hard to see that women very much take the back seat: in the ministries they're the secretaries and cleaners; in the villages you're lucky if you see them at all. It is a situation women's organisations here have been fighting to change since 1991, when Iraq's three northern governorates broke off from Baghdad's control. But their efforts have always come up against one major difficulty - the total lack of reliable statistics to back up their cases. No more. After two years' work, Norwegian People's Aid, a mainly Norwegian-funded NGO based in Sulaymaniyah, is preparing to publish the largest ever survey of women in the region. Running to over 1,400 pages of statistics and analysis, the survey synthesises the results of four months of interviews with 20,000 women (approximately 2 percent of the target population) throughout the Kurdish-controlled region.

Interviewed by 87 volunteers from 23 Kurdish women's organisations, women randomly selected for the survey answered questions on subjects ranging from education levels and healthcare to gender violence and attitudes towards marriage. "They say women are second-class citizens in our society," Soran Abdulqadir Costa, the NPA project manager who designed and headed the survey, told IRIN. "This study shows they're lower down than that."

He leafed through the draft. Just over 15 percent of rural women interviewed said they married before the age of 17, 1.9 percent when they were younger than 12. In cities, the figures were higher, 17.2 percent and 1.7 percent respectively. "By the time a woman reaches the age of 27, she's more or less passed her sell-by date," Costa said.

The figures for illiteracy are even more striking: 13 percent of unmarried women, 51 percent of married women and 87 percent of widows surveyed said they couldn't read or write. A reflection of the standard ways of distinguishing between women in Kurdish society, these three categories are used throughout the survey, and have been criticised by some for condoning the patriarchal traditions the study sets out to expose.

In as much as they are roughly equivalent to a division into age groups, Costa said, they frequently produced results showing a clear progression between youth and old age, married women expressing opinions between those of unmarried women and widows. There was one part of the study, however, where that was not the case - experiences of sexual harassment and violence. Here, 18 percent of widows reported they had been harassed, compared to 48 percent of unmarried women. Married women suffered the worst, with 58 percent saying they had been harassed. Meanwhile, 6.3 percent of unmarried women and 7.6 percent of widows said they had received death threats, four-fifths of the time from family members.

"The image that builds up as you read through the results is of people who are often lonely, cut off from the outside world and severely limited in what they can do," Costa said. "That 90 percent of respondents said they were 'satisfied' just shows how low their expectations are." In the pilot scheme they began to run in November 2002, Costa and his colleagues included among the 140 questions asked a section about sexual relations and attitudes towards sex. Respondents were to be interviewed alone by an all-female team of volunteers, and he was convinced the section would pass muster. He turned out to be wrong. "Some parts of the Kurdish-administered areas, particularly Arbil governorate, are very conservative places," he explained. Breadth of information may have suffered as a result, Costa said, but compromises like this did ensure the survey succeeded in its second major aim - to federate as much of Kurdish society as possible around the project. As well as the women's organisations which provided expertise and volunteers, NPA also worked closely with two Kurdish universities and five ministries from the two administrations that have divided the Kurdish north since civil war broke out in 1994. (...)"

Document(s): original document

02.12.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Ministers and women groups highlight violence and terrorism against women ("original document") [ID 10332]

Document(s): original document

29.11.2004 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Baghdad: Prostitutes under attack from local residents’ groups and religious extremists ("original document") [ID 10363]

"After decades of semi-official tolerance, prostitutes are under attack from local residents’ groups and religious extremists. The disappearance of the protection that prostitutes once enjoyed under Saddam Hussein’s regime has led to a vigilante campaign against on the world’s oldest profession. In the vacuum left by Iraq’s still undeveloped police service, local residents and Islamic vigilantes are taking the law into their own hands to close down brothels and drive prostitutes out of residential neighbourhoods.

Prostitution flourished largely unchecked under Saddam’s regime, and officials not only turned a blind eye to it but also made up a large part of the clientele. With members of the Baathist government and security agencies as regular customers, prostitutes in Baghdad were assured protection as well as payment for their services. After the fall of the regime in 2003, that protection disappeared and angry residents across Baghdad took matters into their own hands, forcing prostitutes out of their neighbourhoods. In summer last year, people in the Abu Ghraib district west of Baghdad destroyed homes in a nearby gypsy encampment, where they said prostitution had been rife under the Baathists. "We finally managed to get rid of them. They disrupted our lives for years under Saddam with their wild all-night parties,” said Kareem Saad, a taxi driver from Abu Ghraib. “We’re an Islamic society and we want to protect our families.”

For Hamza Omar, who owns a drapery shop in Baghdad’s Karrada neighbourhood, business has picked up since the prostitutes who worked in his neighbourhood were made to leave.

"In Saddam's time, the women would stand outside my shop soliciting clients, and then have sex with them in their cars,” he said. “It was very embarrassing for families shopping in my store. Now they’ve gone. There aren’t even any prostitutes in residential areas anymore because the locals expelled them.” While residents feel they are acting in the best interests of their community, the typical methods employed to deal with the issue are heavy handed. “There was a prostitute working in our area who used to be protected by the Baathists,” said postal worker Azhar Anwar. “The local mosque sent an armed group to get rid of her and now she has gone.”

Tales of prostitutes being beaten or threatened with violence to get them to move away are commonplace. In one of the most extreme cases that IWPR heard about, a group of residents in the al-Khaleej district of Baghdad called in the Mahdi Army, the militia force loyal to firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr, to expel a family who were said to be prostituting their children. “We went to the Zahraa mosque and asked men from the Mahdi Army to help us get rid of that family. Three days later, they were gone and our area is now clean,” recounted Haider Jabbar, a local supermarket owner.

But even with such negative attitudes towards prostitution, the basic principles of supply and demand mean that the trade still pays. After being moved on, most of the city’s sex workers have congregated in areas where it is still tolerated. While Islamists vilify them as wanton and immoral, the majority of Baghdad’s prostitutes were driven to the work by necessity. Many say they were shunned by their families for having sex out of wedlock or some other social misdemeanour. Others were forced into it in an attempt to support themselves and their families. Nadia Mahmood, a bleached blonde originally from the Kurdish region, works in the red light district of Bataween, where brothels are still in business.

"I have five children and I had to support them somehow. I got desperate under the [United Nations] sanctions and I begged store owners to give me credit. Instead, they offered to give me goods in exchange for sex,” she explained tearfully. “I had no alternative. I have to pay the rent and provide for my kids.” Mahmood’s colleague, who introduced herself as Batta - or Swan - says she has grown inured to the job, "I had to leave my family after I had sex with my lover and he then refused to marry me. I’ve been here five years. I’ve got used to it. Anyway, no one else would employ me.” While sex work has always involved risk, sex workers in Bataween now face an additional threat. “I have to come here to get money to support my children, but it’s becoming more and more dangerous,” said Mahmood. “We are well aware that Islamic extremists might bomb this area at any time.”"

Document(s): original document

23.11.2004 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Few women working in armed forces ("original document") [ID 10333]

Document(s): original document

09.11.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Activists push for women's rights in Iraq ("original document") [ID 10334]

Document(s): original document

05.11.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Mosul: Local head of Kurdistan Women's Union kidnapped ("original document") [ID 10364]

"KURDISTAN WOMEN'S UNION OFFICIAL KIDNAPPED. Muna Muhammad Jaff, the local head of the Kurdistan Women's Union, was kidnapped outside her Mosul home on 1 November, "Khabat" reported on 2 November. Eyewitnesses said that armed men traveling in four vehicles abducted Jaff. There has been no word on her fate. Union representatives confirmed the abduction to "Khabat." The Kurdistan Women's Union is an organization established in 1952 affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The organization works to advance women's issues within the party and in society at large, according to the KDP website (http://www.kdp.pp.se/women.html). (Kathleen Ridolfo)"

Document(s): original document

28.09.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

UN Human Rights office: Situation of women ("original document") [ID 10335]

"Q: How about women. Are they better off than before?

A: It is difficult to judge. One should not make general sweeping statements and I think that, in a sense, under Saddam Hussein, women's rights were more protected than they are now, but it is not fair to leave it said that way. Women have to fight harder now, but it is their own victory as it were, It is not something imposed from above. I think what we will see in the coming years is a stronger sense of freedom by Iraqi women, but it will probably be one hard battle after another because it has to go through spontaneous interaction among various cultures, those who are conservative and those who are modern.

However, they have managed to get a few points in already with regard to the approach to the constitution and voting rights and so on. But still there is a long way to go and gender rights is a large component of our programme."

Document(s): original document

08.2004 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Report on the current security and legal situation, material safety, displacement situation, human rights and protection situation as well as an overall analysis ("Country of Origin Information (COI) paper on Iraq (as of August 2004)") [#24717],  [ID 10336]

"Under the Saddam Hussein regime, women had some of the most liberal protections of any Muslim country under Iraqi legislation which prohibited marriage under the age of 18 and denied favouritism to men in inheritance, divorce and child custody. It was even common for Iraqi wo men to hold political office, and the U.N. ranked Iraq as the Arab country with the highest level of gender equity prior to the 2003 invasion.
Although CPA Ambassador Bremer refused to endorse the Iraqi Governing Council’s Act 137 dated 29/12/2003 (which would have replaced Iraqi civil law concerning family law with Shari’a law) on the grounds that it deprived women of their basic rights, the new Iraqi Interim Constitution nevertheless does not allow women equal rights to marry, equal rights within marriage, nor equal rights to divorce. It does not guarantee them the right to inherit wealth on an equal basis with men and it fails to guarantee Iraqi women married to non-Iraqi men the right to give citizenship to their children. If adopted and ratified in its present form, the constitution will make Islam one source of law, and this could mean that anything contradicting religious codes may not be allowed. For example, Islam allows men to marry many women and does not require a minimum marriage age. Many human rights and women’s organizations are currently lobbying that these issues should be addressed in the new Constitution. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) is currently trying to implement a strategy to support women leaders in Iraq. UNIFEM works with the Interim Iraqi Government and has assigned a gender focal point to each Ministry. A Ministry of Women’s Affairs has also been created.

Since the fall of the previous regime, the situation of women has declined. Muslim and even Christian women are increasingly being encouraged and indeed pressured to wear a veil. Many Christian women have taken to wearing a veil simply to avoid drawing attention to themselves. In the aftermath of the war, certain groups also took positions at universities, hospitals and other institutions and ordered women to cover their heads and put on a scarf at all times. Such attitudes affect women’s right to move freely and to have free and equal access to employment and other social services. In the South, more and more women are being discouraged from decision-taking and prevented from participating in public life, despite their powerful sense of motivation to empower themselves. In the centre, women are particularly affected by the security and situation of lawlessness in Iraq, especially as concerns their freedom of movement due to the threat of kidnapping. In the North, despite the fact that a law now defines honour killings as straightforward murder, crimes of this type still take place, and women who are, for example, victims of sexual aggression, are nevertheless frequently ostracized by their family members in an attempt to preserve the family’s honour. There is currently one centre for women who are victims of honour crimes. However UNIFEM stated that they do not believe that the existence of the centre is well-known among the female population in the North. There is no type of referral system in place for women who have problems, and police are generally not gender-sensitive. As a result, many genderrelated crimes are never reported, especially by the victim who most often chooses not to draw further attention upon or expose herself by filing a report with the police."

Document(s): Open document

09.06.2004 - Source: UN Human Rights Council (formerly UN Commission on Human Rights)

Report focused on political, military, security and human rights situation ( treatment during arrest, detention) and the situation of children and women ("Report of the High comissioner for human rights and fallow-up to the world conference on human rights E/CN.4/2005/ 4") [#25826],  [ID 10337]

Document(s): Open document

14.04.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Female harassment from religious conservatives ("original document") [ID 10366]

"Many women in the southern Iraqi city of Basra say they have been forced to wear a headscarf or restrict their movements in fear of harassment from men. Female students at the University of Basra say that since the war ended a year ago, groups of men began stopping them at the university gates and shout at women whose heads are not covered. (...)

Basra, which was known for its nightlife, parks and social events During the 1970s is now a very different place, local women say. Almost all females wear a veil at the university, including Christian Iraqis. This, along with the security situation is making it impossible for women to walk freely on their own, some women say. In the months after the war the British forces allowed the militias who follow religious groups to take a leading role in security patrols, to help restore order, which may have influenced the situation, according to local women's groups. (...)"

Document(s): original document

24.03.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Women's groups under threat in the new Iraq ("original document") [ID 10368]

"Threats against women's rights groups in Iraq appear to be on the rise, with the environment becoming increasingly unsafe over the past weeks, activists say."

Document(s): original document

29.12.2003 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Situation of Kurdish women much better than in the south and centre of Iraq ("original document") [ID 10339]

"(...) The Kurdistan Women's Union (KWU) has more than 52,000 members throughout Iraq and positions in the Kurdish government. General Secretary Shirin Ahmadi told IRIN in Arbil that whereas women still faced many problems, their situation was improving rapidly.

"Men in the Middle East don't have an open mind - their minds are locked. But the situation of Kurdish women is much better than in the south and centre of Iraq. Year by year things are improving and we are trying to provide information to help this," she said. (...)"

Document(s): original document

08.11.2003 - Source: Wadi e.V.

The Situation of Women ("Irakische Flüchtlinge nach dem Regime Change - Vorläufige Einschätzung (überarbeitete Fassung eines Beitrags zur Asylfachtagung in Stuttgart-Hohenheim, September 2003)") [#17670],  [ID 10340]

Document(s): Open document

13.08.2003 - Source: UK Home Office

Fear of lawlessness, sexual violence and abduction of women and girls in Baghdad [ID 10341]

"Women are rarely seen in the streets without a veil or driving unless accompanied by their husbands, parents are keeping their daughters home from school, reports of sexual violence and abduction of women and girls abound in Baghdad"

Document(s): Open document

23.06.2003 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Basra's women have mixed feelings about the new era ("IRIN: Basra's women have mixed feelings about the new era") [ID 10342]

"What are their hopes for women's rights in the new Iraq? "Women's rights?" said the other, laughing loudly. "In Iraq we do not even have human rights.""

Document(s): IRIN: Basra's women have mixed feelings about the new era

13.06.2003 - Source: BBC News

Religious extremists are intimidating women and girls into wearing the veil/ women are victims of intimidation and lawlessness, increase in rape reported ("Iraqi women 'forced to veil'") [#13530],  [ID 10367]

Document(s): Open document

03.06.2003 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Economic freedom seen as key to women's equality ("IRIN: Economic freedom seen as key to women's equality") [ID 10343]

Document(s): IRIN: Economic freedom seen as key to women's equality

16.05.2003 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

What Does The Future Hold For Women? ("Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: What Does The Future Hold For Women?") [ID 10344]

"Very few women are seen on the streets of Iraq these days. Many believe this is due to the pervasive lack of security, and that once order is restored to the country, women will return to regular life. But the future role of women in a new, democratic Iraq remains unclear. RFE/RL talked to members of the country's leading political and religious groups about the future of Iraq's women."

Document(s): Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: What Does The Future Hold For Women?