Fourteen years after the invasion thirty countries headed by U.S. imperialism and the establishment of a puppet Shiite regime right-wing in 2003, Iraq continues to be under occupation and at war. Among other Washington pursued the following objectives: to dismember the Iraqi state, destroying its institutions and infrastructure so that it could not recover for decades; to turn it into a major military base in the heart of the Middle East, with which to monitor Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and at the same time and be done with the Arab enemies of Israel, the defenders of the Palestinian cause (and then to do the same thing with Libya and Syria).
The first part of the plan was implemented in 1980 by the provocation of the war between Iraq and Iran so that both the powerful and developed States in the area of the world mutually destroy each other in accordance with the doctrine of dual containment (Dual Containment Policy). The aim was to prevent economic, political, social and military development of Iraq and Iran and to establish control over this strategically important area. That’s when the denial of women’s rights in Iraq.
The situation of women before the war
When the Republicans overthrew the monarchy in 1958, among other reforms abolished the religious courts, granted women equal rights in inheritance and divorce and restricted polygamy. In the quest to modernize the country, the 1970 Constitution — unlike today — recognized the equality between men and women. The BAATH party, declaring the intention to build a state and to this end called loyalty to the ruling party instead of allegiance taken separately, tribe or community, actively engaging women to build a modern country. Now they could study at universities, work judges, pilots, to engage in scientific work, not forgetting about your role as a mother. They received six months ‘ leave for pregnancy and childbirth. Among them was an outstanding microbiologist of the country Rihab Taha al-Azavi (Rihab Taha al-Azawi).
With the development of oil industry in 1970-e years in Iraq, instead of hiring foreign labor (as it did in Saudi Arabia) began to recruit women. This trend increased especially during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), which killed hundreds of thousands of people from both sides. While urban and secular women, women of middle and high society became engineers, doctors, architects, militant capitalism Hussein strengthened the Patriarchal and religious values in rural areas, among poor families.
In 1982 Iraq received the UNESCO prize for the campaign against illiteracy. Thanks to the General Federation of Iraqi women (GFIW), the women’s wing of the BAATH party, the literacy rate for women in 1985 it has reached 87%.
However, Saddam, more skativshiesya to dictatorship, Islamic radicalism closer together with the reactionary theocracy of Saudi rulers, ruthlessly dealt with women asserting their rights, subjecting them to torture and violence in terrible conditions in prison.
The cost of the war forced him to discontinue the payment of cash grants working mothers. So poverty bars the way to school for girls, offering in return “marriage”. One mouth at an empty table will be less. Began to spread rapidly, illiteracy, prostitution and polygamy. Saddam has revived the Shariah in such matters as divorce and parenting. It was reduced from eight years to six months imprisonment for crimes against honor and dignity. It was used in the 1988 chemical weapons against the Kurds, killing more than five thousand women, men and children.
The results of the fictions about the war
Just finished the war with Iran, Saddam got into a new trap set by the USA, this time in Kuwait. In Iraq and thousands of its citizens showered tons of bombs. The result of UN-imposed economic sanctions, famine killed about a million people, half of them children. Saddam has accelerated its turn toward right-wing of Islam and the first thing sacrificed women. In 2000, a volunteer militia established by Hussein’s son Uday, beheaded women accused of prostitution.
A paradoxical situation emerged: mothers who had higher education, were brought up illiterate daughters, who again began to wear the hijab. The American invasion of 2003 finally finished off the Iraqi state, having spread to the same theocratic regime of the fascist (with their death squads), creating conditions for the return of the country to the middle Ages. The whole society turned into a “religious community”: men got the right to marry 9 year old girls, and they, even upon reaching adulthood, could not leave home to study, work or to go anywhere without the permission of her husband, master; rape ceased to be a crime if the rapist married the victim. These laws were adopted by the deputies of the fundamentalists, who formed the basis of the regime created by George Bush.
Now 10 million Iraqis live in absolute poverty, the vast majority of women no husbands. Thousands of women begging with their children, live in landfills and slums, without water and electricity. These are the traffickers of women and girls. Crime in the streets and the number of girls abducted is such that many parents do not let their daughters to school. Others, with higher education cannot find a job, and if they do, only if they have ties in the government or give a bribe.
In 2014, four to six thousand women were victims of sexual violence by law enforcement officers. Prostitution is spreading in large part due to bullies, terrorists and American soldiers. According to estimates by the Organization for women’s liberation in Iraq (OWFI), from 2003 to 2010 were missing, about four thousand women and girls. The Iraqi method of trafficking as follows: the dealer takes his victim for a wife to take her outside the country. After crossing the border, he divorced her to sell it. Then returned to Iraq for fresh goods.
The price of girls on the market of the Gulf countries amounts to 30 thousand dollars if they are 11-12 years old, and 2 thousand dollars, if it is a used product. “Targeted killing” has claimed the lives of hundreds of progressive journalists, intellectuals, scientists and politicians. In November 2009, was shot in the head teacher Safa ‘ Abd al-Amir (Safa ‘Abd al-Amir), a member of the Communist party. She miraculously survived.
Nowhere to hide from this hellish dictatorship where the US continues to send military and continue to bomb the country. Half a million residents of Mosul have lost their homes in recent months. The request of the Iraqi men and women (and Afghans) of asylum are rejected because they have the country’s democracy Made in USA. Continues endless agony of the women and men of Iraq, where the interests of the United States, great Britain, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey.
