May
15

So where is Laura Bush?

Remember how, way back in late 2001, both George and Laura waxed publicly indignant at the misogynistic cruelty of the Taliban? Remember how the two of them were popping off almost like feminists, so as to get us in the mood for war?
Well, they got their war against the Taliban (although those feisty pricks are on the rise again); and then they got their war against Iraq. And look what’s happened to the women there. Will Laura speak out soon?
MCM


Women’s Rights Under Occupation

Earlier this month the Daily Mail of London published the following dispatch from Iraq: “A 17-year-old girl has been stoned to death in Iraq because her boyfriend was from a different religious faith. Du’a Khalil Aswad, from a minority Kurdish religious group, Yezidi, was condemned to an ‘honour killing’ by men in her family and hardliners due to her relationship with a Sunni Muslim. She had taken shelter in the house of a Yezidi tribal leader in Bashika, near the northern capital, Mosul. Eight or nine men stormed the house and dragged Miss Aswad into the street where they hurled stones at her for half an hour. Reports said a local security force saw the attack, but did not try to stop it. Now her boyfriend is in hiding.” Human rights groups say this honor killing is just the latest news to emerge from Iraq that shows how the condition of women in Iraq has rapidly deteriorated since the U.S. occupation began. Some have described it as the Talibanization of Iraq.

Yanar Mohammed on Iraq “Honor” Killings
Honor killing is becoming something to celebrate in Iraq now, and this did not happen before these last years. When a young woman is killed — actually, it was more than eight to nine males around her. It was hundreds of males standing around. None of them helped, but they were very keen on photographing the scene, on videotaping it on their cell phones, on their mobile phones. And on top of that, the part, the information that’s missing in the report is that some of our codes, the penal codes, which is part of our laws, they support the killing of women if they are “dishonorable.”

So what happened in this new Iraq, the so-called liberation of Iraq has turned women into refugees inside their country. Millions of us are vulnerable to be killed, and all our lives are threatened, and there is nobody to secure our lives for us. The policemen were standing and watching, and actually they helped to get the young girl back to the place where she was killed. So by constitution, we have lost our rights. Honor killings are on the rise. Kidnappings of women are getting more now. Our organization’s work proves that human trafficking is still rising, and not much is being done about it.

Read more.


May 15, 2007   //   General   //   No Comments   //  

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