IRAQ AT A CROSSROADS

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Pedro Rojo Pérez
the principle of equality before the law and gradually marginalise women in public and
economic life, an inescapable occurrence in the private sector where only 2% of employees
are women.11 This same Constitution imposed a 25% share for women’s presence in all
government bodies elected by vote, but the presence of this share, the majority of which was
taken up by regressive parties, has served for little more than to paper over the hindrances
in women’s status. This is summed up in the comments of the Minister of Women’s Affairs,
Abtihal Alzidi: “I am against the equality between men and women. If women are equal to
men they are going to lose a lot. Up to now I am with the power of the man in society. If I go
out of my house, I have to tell my husband where I am going. This does not mean diluting
the role of woman in society but, on the contrary, it will bring more power to the woman as
a mother who looks after their kids and brings up their children”. 12
The high number of NGOs and women’s associations created in the advent of the
occupation have not been able to exert any influence and remain trapped between a lack
of importance in Iraqi society, which considers them products of foreign occupation, and
pressure from militias and conservative parties in power. Only through their international
contacts have they managed to attract media attention regarding the most extreme issues,
for instance the aforementioned Jaafari Law, which was eventually rejected due to the
breakup of the Iraqi parliament in 2014. Since 2003, the history of Iraq has been defined
by chaos, corruption and scant security, with women bearing the brunt and finding
themselves with limited basic freedoms and the subject of kidnappings, murders, torture,
forced marriages and sexual violence. The forced emigration of more than five million
Iraqis, the outcome of sectarian policies from diverse militias, has broken a significant part
of the social structures that protected the weakest elements in Iraqi society, such as women
and children. Over one and a half million widows13 have had to provide for their families
in this environment, in a State that is virtually absent.
This terrible panorama became ever darker with the arrival of Daesh and the generation
of a new wave of refugees. Their extremist vision of the law, imposed upon the inhabitants
in the territories they control, has almost completely condemned Iraqi women to being
ostracised; the images of women dressed in black and sold by Daesh with a sign bearing
their price have been seen around the world. This is a highly graphic image, a nightmare
within a nightmare that Iraqi women suffer in these territories: sexual violence, trafficking,
kidnappings, scant access to health care services, limited freedom of movement, prohibited
jobs and brutal punishments resulting from any breach of law.
The misfortune of being a child in Iraq
“The type and scope of violations against children, women and minority communities
in Iraq in the past weeks is one of the worst seen in this century, and is completely
unacceptable by any standards or codes of conduct that govern conflict”, these are the
11 Women in Iraq factsheet. UN Iraq, March 2013.
12 Abdulla M (2012). Outrage as Iraqi women’s affairs minister opposes equality for women. In: Kurdistan
Tribune [online]. Available in:
opposes-equality-for-women/.
13 Women in Iraq Factsheet - Displaced women and women in conflict. UN Iraq, March 2015.