[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [ilrtf] International Women's Day in Iraq
Alfred Kagan
akagan at uiuc.edu
Fri Mar 12 09:32:57 CST 2004
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>Subject: [ilrtf] International Women's Day in Iraq
>
> IN THIS MESSAGE
>* International Women's Day in Iraq
>*
>______________________________________________
>
>Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq
>IWD - March 8 in Baghdad
>Among Bombs and Constitution Signing
>
>Demands of a secular and egalitarian
>constitution were loud and clear among this
>crowd. Across the river,
>in the CPA, 25 members of the Governing Council,
>individuals that are hand-picked by the
>Americans, were
>signing a constitution based upon religious,
>ethnic and gender divisions leaving millions of
>women
>vulnerable to systemic discrimination and oppression.
>The demonstration of almost 1000 people (mostly
>women) started at the OWFI headquarters in
>streets that
>were covered with March 8 posters and slogans.
>Their children in front of them holding up a
>March 8
>poster that showed a silhouette of a woman with
>the hair blowing in the wind. Surrounding the
>women’s
>demonstration, groups of guarding men with red
>bands on their arms protected the demo in these
>times of
>total chaos and random bombings. The guards were
>from the only political party supporting OWFI,
>the
>Worker-communist Party of Iraq.
>Although under veil and Aabaia, big crowds of women
>gathered in Al Fardawse square chanting slogans of
>freedom and equality for the International Women’s Day.
>After decades of marginalisation and denial of women’s
>issues, that morning revealed immense potential and
>determination to turn a dark scenario into a bright one.
>
>In spite of receiving 2 death threats via email
>within the last month, Yanar Mohammed was
>leading the
>demonstration among vigilant women activists and
>also side by side with the leaders of the WCPI.
>Hadeel, a previous target of honour killing,
>organized the mobilization and transportation
>and masses of
>hundreds of women. Sahera took serious steps in
>assertiveness after throwing the veil a few
>months back.
>She was leading the March chanting the slogans
>of Freedom and equality. The older and
>politically
>determined Um Sabbah accompanied Yanar so
>closely stressing she will not let anyone hurt
>her by any
>chance on such a great day.
>From every residential complex, came an OWFI
>activist with one or two buses full of women
>outraged by
>the current women-unfriendly situation.
>Um Muhammad, a retired nurse, in her traditional
>clothing from Al Huda is a born leader. Her
>adult sons
>say she’s the man of the house. Another Um
>Muhammad from Al Jihad neighbourhood, a
>full-time tailor, is
>a fashionable woman with a diplomatic method.
>She is leading a campaign in her area to oust
>the corrupt
>neighbourhood council member selected by the
>Americans. She gathered two busses of women with
>their
>children. Lamaan who is a previous member of the
>Iraqi Communist Party, is sick and tired of their
>compromises about women’s rights. She visited
>her friends in the area factories and managed to
>gather
>around fifeteen workers about an urgent move on
>IWD. Muna from Al Ansar complex for displaced
>people,
>Um Abdallah and others from other
>districts
Usually they are called by their sons
>names, where Um
>Muhammad means the mother of Muhammad
etc.
>
>Yanar’s speech emphasized on secularism as a
>precondition for women’s freedoms. She stressed
>on the
>need to work on a women’s power and voice that
>decide the future for Iraq. No more inferiority
>under
>Political Islam that equals four women to one man.
>The speech also denounced any attempts by the GC
>to change IWD into another date during the year
>that is
>a newly invented Islamic women’s day. She
>exposed those attempts as a plot to isolate
>Iraqi women from
>international women’s solidarity, as the first
>step of keeping women oppressed by the support
>of religion
>and the pretext of local tradition.
>The following part was a tribute of solidarity and support to the
>women employees of banks that were thrown in prisons as a
>cover-up for the administrative corruption and failure
>connected to big freud operations handled by officials connected
>to members of GC.
>Yanar finally announced that OWFI provides the alternative to
>women threatened by honour-killing or domestic abuse by
>taking them into safe houses. The speech was interrupted many
>times by slogans of freedom and putting an end to oppression.
>The next two speeches were for the leaders of the Worker-communist
>Party Samir Adil and Muayad Ahmed. Their
>emphasis was on the women’s question as one of
>the main fields of political struggle among
>different parties.
>An arena that reflects their social aspiratons
>for masses of millions. “Women’s freedom is the
>measure of
>freedom and humanity in society” said Muayad
>Ahmad after an overview of how the authorities
>had no
>connection whatsoever to the daily aspirations
>and miseries of women. Samir Adil criticized the
>detrioration
>of women’s status under the Islamist parties who
>were given power by the Americans.
>Next in line was the outspoken Liqaa Hamza. She
>is one of the bank employees threatened by jail
>if she does
>not pay to the government imaginary amounts of
>money (equivalent to 20 years of her salary).
>Liqaa
>threatened that if the ministry cannot protect
>the employees and the GC does not consider the
>interest of the
>citizens, they are willing to start a general
>strike that paralyzes the economy; “
and we’ll
>see what they can
>do about that!”
>The next part of the event was for the OWFI
>women’s activists from all over Baghdad. Five
>outspoken
>women from all walks of life had one point in
>common. Women are strong
their voices must be
>heard
>and also an immediate end to all kinds of
>oppression against women. They all ended with
>one single voice:
>“
this is OUR day
the International Women’s Day”.
>A big number of male guards from the WCPI, with
>red bands on their arms guarded and watched every
>single corner of Al Fardawse square. At some
>point, an Iraqi police personnel tried to walk
>into the square.
>He was questioned and investigated until he
>showed his official ID to Fattah and Laith from
>the WCPI
>security committee. After making sure of his name and photo they let him go.
>Local and foreign media filled the square at a
>time that coincided with the signature of the
>constitution. One
>of the correspondents asked Yanar Mohammed: “
>What are your ideas on this signed
>constitution?” She
>answered casually: “ The council that was
>imposed on Iraqi people can sign what it
>chooses
The future,
>our future, we decide
We have learnt to organize
>our ranks. We will not leave our destinies in
>their
>hands”.
>"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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>_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
--
Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA
tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
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