Independent Women's Forum - Research Areas > Iraq:In the News

Iraqi Women Fall Victim to Extremists

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST

It is appalling to see the type of barbaric actions extremists are carrying out against Iraqi women.

A CNN article reports Iraqi women are killed "because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other ‘rules' that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce."

"...two women were killed in front of their kids. Their blood was flowing in front of their kids, they were crying. Another woman was killed in front of her 6-year-old son, another in front of her 11-year-old child, and yet another who was pregnant."

"This extremist ideology enrages many secular Muslim women, who say it's a misrepresentation of Islam."

Iraq does have to be won by the Iraqis

info@iwf.org (Anne Trenolone) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:47:00 EST

Besides his "the surge is working" comment from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today, Congressman John Murtha is telling the Iraqi central government what they need to hear. They do need to make progress, build bridges and clean up ministries that are not delivering results and that are hamstringing progress.

Also, in all honesty the folks on the ground—including those Pennsylvania troops Murtha met with last week—do have a desire to come home, but they have an even stronger sense of duty and conviction to get the job done right. They are being empowered to do the job right and the Congress needs to grant them the funding to accomplish this task.

The truth of the matter is the surge is working and has altered for the better the landscape that US diplomats and the US military are responding to.

However, publicized, Congressionally-prescribed timelines are not helpful to military planners and leaders working in a volatile and ever changing Iraq. Developing a sound exit strategy and publicizing it, for all to digest including insurgent groups, are two very different things.

The US cannot afford to repeat past actions that have withdrawn troops from vulnerable neighborhoods and sectors only to have to reclaim them militarily.

All this discussion of the surge and defense funding for military operations is buttressed by a new optimism among the American public regarding Iraq. A new survey out of The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press states:

A growing number [of Americans] says the U.S. war effort is going well, while greater percentages also believe the United States is making progress in reducing the number of Iraqi casualties, defeating the insurgents and preventing a civil war in Iraq.

Americans are becoming more optimistic about progress, but we should all be prepared that progress may not happen as quickly as we would like. The environment in Iraq is so complex and victories come in small quantities one by one, as is being illustrated on the streets of Baghdad daily.

Going back to Congressman Murtha, he makes a point that I am sure many on both sides of the aisle would agree with. Iraq has to be won by the Iraqis. They have to want it and they must seize the momentum ignited by the surge to make political progress toward stability and reconciliation.

Maybe USA Today can Start a Trend

info@iwf.org (Anne Trenolone) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:02:00 EST

You know I was reading Charlotte's post on the coverage of news out of Iraq and Rich Lowry's column on the subject. Both are good but skeptic, commuter and journalism graduate that I am, I always scan the newspaper headlines at the top of the metro stop. Rich Lowry couldn't have known given that his piece was posted at 12:00 am last night that USA Today, the newspaper with the highest circulation in the US, would run exactly the story of a decrease in roadside bombings in the right column, top of the fold in today's edition. Kudos to USA Today.

Then just as an experiment I turned on the TV to see what was running on the major news channels. To my horror, three out of four were running live OJ Simpson coverage. Which station wasn't covering it CNN. Oh, wait, OJ just popped up on CNN. So that would make it OJ across the board.

On Iraq Coverage, Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

info@iwf.org (Anne Trenolone) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:20:00 EDT

So we're talking about Iraq today. Well, Iraq is something I definitely have some opinions on and with all the Britney Spears coverage, SCHIP, Rush Limbaugh and-yes-Princess Diana coverage over the last few days on the news channels it hasn't really been at the top of the news feeds, though the papers have as always been plugging along on Iraq stories as Stanley Kurtz and apparently some others have noted.

But I am going to have to take issue with Stanley Kurtz on The Washington Post's series on IEDs.

I don't think this series is some kind of concerted effort by the Post to look backward at only the bad things happening in Iraq and somehow dismiss any progress during the last few months. Note this from the introduction to the four part series:

"The number of IED attacks declined in Iraq late this summer after five more U.S. brigades took the field as part of a troop "surge" ordered by the White House. American casualties from IEDs also dropped. Throughout Iraq, more than half of all makeshift bombs are found before they detonate."

If massive aerial bombing in World War II-reaching its final culmination in the release of the atomic bomb-was one of the lasting tactics of that brutal war, the rise of improvised explosive devices (IED's or roadside bombs as they are also known) have been a, if not the, defining tactic of the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a topic worthy of detailed coverage and defeating this weapon will have far reaching consequences beyond Iraq.

Although the series is not a bed of roses in its description of a complex issue it does include reporting on "heartening developments":

"We've saved a lot of lives," Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England said in an interview last month. "We've had people killed and injured, but we've probably saved five or 10 times that number of people by preventing attacks, or capturing and killing [insurgents], or getting caches of weapons, or disabling them."

I might also note that the author of the series Rick Atkinson is an solid reporter and historian who has earned his chops covering not only this conflict but his continuing trilogy on World War II is excellent-and it seems the people who give out Pulitzer Prizes for History agree with me. If you aren't familiar with his book on the North Africa Campaign, An Army at Dawn, and his just released on the invasion of Italy, The Day of Battle, they are worth a look.

Atkinson also wrote The Long Gray Line, a chronicle of the 1966 class of West Point and wrote an account of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, In the Company of Soldiers, where he was embedded with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division then lead by one Major General David H. Petraeus, who everyone is very familiar with these days. If I recall correctly, it is from Atkinson's book where I learned of the General's penchant for pop tarts. But I digress.

Atkinson's series obviously took time and effort and the Post also obviously shelled out some bucks on it, so you can't really fault them for hyping it accordingly. Because much as we don't like to think about it sometimes, media is a business after all. Most other four-part, in-depth series would probably receive the front page treatment as well.

Detailed reporting that doesn't merely skim the surface of the real challenges in Iraq and that takes the time to relay the complexities of the situation the military and those working on the ground face every day is hard to come by. Don't discourage it when it does show up.

I think the bigger problem here is that certain folks may be intimidated by a four part series and as much as we American's talk about wanting in-depth, solid reporting, we don't always read it when it is available. We have other things on our minds. So as far as Post coverage on Iraq and its editorial placement, I just want to say, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. And if you didn't read the IED series, give it another chance. This new fangled thing called the internet makes it oh so easy to do.

I would also applaud Atkinson on making the effort to ask senior officials "to review the [article's] findings for accuracy and security considerations." Because when you publicize explicitly even the little things that places like JIEDDO (the Joint IED-Defeat Organization), and soldiers have discovered to combat and thwart IED attacks, they don't work anymore because terrorists and insurgents watch and read the news too.

Iraqi justice: Saddam hung in his own torture chambers

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST

Townhall

The cold corridors of the headquarters of the Fifth Section of Iraqi Intelligence saw a strange sight last week: the Great Executioner was being led to his end in the same desolate and damp room where his victims once cried in vain for help. These victims forlorn cries were in vain-- most never saw the light of day again. And while those executed in that room were invariably innocent of any crime except opposition, real or imagined, to the Baathist regime, the new visitor was convicted by an Iraqi court of law for very specific, well-documented crimes.

For all practical purposes, Saddam was dead as soon as he was discovered by American troops hiding in the famous hole in his native village two years ago. But his execution, while attended by some farcical manifestations of the new order in Iraq, serves to remind us of some important facts.

Above all, the families of the countless victims of this dreadful man and his vast apparatus of terror must now feel a sense of justice done. Many of these families had given up hope that he will be made to pay for his crimes. In fact, based on accounts in Iraqi media, some of them had swung, over the past two years of the on-again off-again trial of Saddam to the belief that the Americans had cut a deal with the Sunni insurgents to free Saddam. Seeing him with a rope around his neck laid to rest any possibility of his return to lead his Baathists again.

In Islamic societies, justice is considered the cornerstone of any government that seeks acceptance by those governed. One of the problems of the liberation of Iraq from Saddam's tyranny is that, except for the killing of Saddam's sons, there has been no sense of redress, of equilibrium achieved, for the millions of Iraqi, Iranian, and Kuwaiti victims of Saddam's who has suffered under Saddam's wars and weapons of mass destruction. This feeling of inappropriateness, of disconnectedness between the reality of irretrievable loss on part of the victims and the seemingly interminable trials of the Baathist figures, led to disillusionment and a loss of faith in the rule of law.

Now, for many Iraqis, and for many Arabs, this single act of disposing of their dictator has reassured them that the system of law and order, heretofore nearly non-existent, may actually begin to function: that criminals will pay for their crimes, even such exalted figures as presidents may one day pay for their acts of terror. As one Egyptian Saddam supporter, demonstrating against the execution in Cairo, said: "It is unbelievable that they have actually executed their president."

Both friends and enemies of the new Iraq, groping for its identity and its political stability, are drawing their own conclusions from this most singular act. The friends see hopeful signs in that the Baathist insurgents now may realize that their days of dominance are gone forever. That the inspiration of their "necessary leader" is no longer there to provide them with a rallying cry.

The enemies of the future of Iraq, ranging from a distraught Qaddafi who declared a period of mourning over his erstwhile fellow dictator to the anti-American coalition the world over, must realize that despite the mistakes, despite the lurches in the Iraqi path forward, history moves on and the days of the dictators are numbered.

National Election Continues Iraq's Journey Toward Democracy

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST

WASHINGTON, DC- The Independent Women's Forum congratulates the men and women of Iraq who voted in overwhelming numbers today to choose their first democratically elected full-term government since the fall of Saddam in 2003.

"Today's nationwide election has proved to be yet another victory for Iraqis. They took another important step toward the development of a truly democratic Iraq in relative peace," said IWF senior vice president Michelle D. Bernard.

7,648 candidates representing Iraq's 18 provinces are vying for 275 seats in the new National Assembly. Of the 275 seats, 230 are allocated according to the population of the provinces. The remaining 45 seats will be distributed to parties whose ethnic, religious, or political support is spread over more than one province.

"This is an historic day for all Iraqis. With this election, the Iraqi people have demonstrated to the world they want to choose their own leaders and live in a peaceful Iraq," continued Bernard.

Iraq Women Risk All for Their Rights

info@iwf.org (Basma Fakri) — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EDT

New York Daily News

If Iraq is to succeed as a model democracy in the Middle East, the next few days will be among the most crucial since its liberation from Saddam Hussein's iron grip. At stake is whether women will be full partners in Iraq's new freedom or whether they will be relegated to second-class status, denied equal rights and prevented from full participation in Iraq's society, economy and government.

One of the results of Saddam's many wars and political assassinations is that today women make up about 60 percent of the Iraqi population. By necessity, these women have participated in, and contributed collectively with, their brothers in the functioning and rebuilding of Iraq. Iraq's many widows carry the burden of their family's needs under harsh circumstances.

Iraq's new constitution must be completed by Monday. Unfortunately for Iraqi women, draft versions of the constitution are cause for alarm. All have cited Islam as either the only or a main source of law and open the door for different interpretations of sharia to be imposed.

The imposition of religious-based laws would bring about a great injustice. Under some Islamic sectors, once a wife is divorced she has to leave her house with possibly no place to go. Certain Islamic sectors allow for the marriage of girls as young as 9. Some interpretations allow for a guardian to force marriage on a girl against her will.

Some sectors mandate that a mother loses custody of a male child when he reaches the age of 2 and a female child when she turns 7. The children then remain in the father's custody or with his immediate family.

The new Iraq constitution must clearly grant equal rights to all Iraqis and recognize the rights of women. It must also make clear the obligation of all branches of the government to promote full compliance with these laws. Furthermore, Iraq has ratified a number of international conventions guaranteeing the rights of women. These are still binding and must be upheld.

Iraqi women are not opposing Islam as one source of influence in the constitution. Islam respects women. Islam is a great source and guide for inspiration. It maintains the sacred relationship between God and the people. But Islam should be one among many sources to prevent the capricious application of sharia by unaccountable clerics.

The women of Iraq are showing that they are ready to be full participants in a thriving democracy. They have organized protests in the heat of Baghdad summer, out in the open where they are vulnerable to terrorist attacks. They are lobbying the new Iraqi president, prime minister and members of the national assembly. They have organized letter writing campaigns and grass-roots activities. Their drive shows that Iraq can become the model democracy the region so desperately needs. But it will be both a farce and a tragedy if Iraq was liberated from a terrible dictator just to see women lose their rights under a new shape of tyranny.

Basma Fakri is president of the Women's Alliance for a Democratic Iraq.

Click here to read the latest report from Amnesty International: "Iraq: The New Constitution Must Protect Human Rights."