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The humanitarian disaster in Iraq: beyond the atrocities of Daesh
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and armed forces able and willing to protect all sectors of the population and enforce the
law equally and undermine the establishment of a fair justice system that upholds equality
before the law and other human rights”. 7
The appearance of Daesh has caused a role reversal in these militias, which previously
operated under the armed forces, and now Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (the Shia militia created in
2014 for the express purpose of fighting against Daesh) acts outside not just the laws of the
Iraqi State, but also the international laws of war, giving rise to a higher degree of human
rights violations that “have escalated in recent months. Residents have been forced from
their homes, kidnapped, and in some cases summarily executed”.8
The situation for Iraqi women
The worsening situation of women in Iraq has occurred in parallel to their country’s
destruction over the last 30 years. In the 1960s and 1970s, Iraqi women experienced
significant progress after the promulgation of the Personal Status Law in 1959 (known as
Law 188), which implemented completely new measures for women such as the chance
to request a divorce, the minimum marriage age being set at 18, the prohibition of forced
marriages and highly specified conditions of polygamy. During the governments ruled by
the Baath Party these guidelines were upheld, supporting education, universal access to
health care, the possession of land and property and women’s incorporation into the labour
market.9 However, after the war with Kuwait and the arrival of the embargo the difficult
economic conditions were exacerbated, particularly among women, the weakest link in the
labour chain. The US invasion and occupation not only worsened the situation for Iraqi
women, it also relapsed back to what happened during the embargo. Conservative political
parties, followers of Iranian theses, governed without an on-going solution since the arrival
of the occupiers, who sacrificed the human agenda for geo-politics and the defence of
freedoms and human rights for an agreement with Iran in issues related to high politics.
The lack of attention to gender issues is now apparent from the first governing body, known
as the Governing Council, where only 3 of the 25 members were women; this would be a
clear indicator of the influence issues related to women were going to have in the policies
of the occupiers. This same Governing Council attempted to pass resolution 137, which
transferred issues related to personal status to the direct control of the ulemas in each
religious community. Another attempt to stall the progress of Iraqi women came with the
Jaafari Law, approved by the Council of Ministers on 25 February 2014, which sanctioned,
amongst other measures, the marriage of 9-year-old girls, or covert prostitution, religiously
known as the mut’a marriage.10 The transfer of the personal status to the religious sphere was
protected by Article 41 of the new Iraqi Constitution from 2005, which would undermine
7 Amnesty International (2014). Militia rule in Iraq. 14 October 2014.
8 Human Rights Watch (2015). Iraq: militias escalate abuses, possibly war crimes. In: HRW [online].
Available in:
9 Fischer-Tahir A (2010). Competition, cooperation and resistance: women in the political field in Iraq. In:
International Affairs. Oxford: The Royal Institute of International Affairs, p. 1381-94.
10 . 2013/10/30