Revolution #196, March 28, 2010

What the Democracy Sponsored by the U.S. Means for Women in Iraq Today

Recent parliamentary elections in Iraq have been hailed by the U.S. government and media as a success in establishing democracy in Iraq. Most people in the U.S. see photos of women covered head to toe and figure that this is a longstanding tradition that has always prevailed in Iraq. Wrong! Women had more rights under the brutal Saddam Hussein regime than they do now. Here is some of what the U.S. invasion and occupation and U.S.-installed government has meant for women in Iraq:

• There are now 740,000 Iraqi widows, many of whom are destitute and forced into prostitution, including the form endorsed by Shi'ite religious authorities euphemistically labeled "temporary marriage." (Source: Afghanistan—Frequently Asked Questions Part 1: "Isn't the Taliban a horror for women? So shouldn't the U.S. stay in Afghanistan?" by Larry Everest, Revolution #158, March 8, 2009)
• The International Organization for Migration estimates that of Iraq's 1.6 million internally displaced people, more than half are women or girls, who are more vulnerable to rape and other forms of sexual violence. (Source: Larry Everest, Ibid.)
• The occupation authorities consistently undermined Iraqi women's efforts to secure their legal rights. The U.S. threw its weight behind Iraq's Shi'ite Islamists, calculating that these forces, long suppressed by Saddam Hussein, would cooperate with the occupation and deliver the stability needed for the U.S. These religious forces demanded and won the repeal of Iraq's 1959 family law that protected women's rights to divorce, equal custody of children and an income independent of their husbands. (Source: The Hypocrisy of "Newly Minted Feminists"…And David Horowitz' Dangerous Agenda by T. Redtree, Revolution #105, October 21, 2007)
• The new Iraqi Constitution glorified by the U.S. as bringing democracy to Iraq enacted laws that in effect turned Iraq into an Islamic Republic. Islam was enshrined as the official religion of Iraq and rights for women were guaranteed as long as they do not "violate Sharia" (Islamic law.) (Source: T. Redtree, Ibid.)
• The Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Sistani—a U.S. ally—ordered all Iraqi women to wear headscarves, and his edicts were enforced by beheadings and acid attacks. In 2006, Sistani also issued an order for the killing of gays and lesbians. (Source: T. Redtree, op cit.)

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