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In early 2009, reports of improved security in Iraq, and even a return to ‘normality,’ began appearing in the media. Similar reports of diminished suicide bombs and other violent indiscriminate attacks emerged at the time of the initial data collection last year. However insecurity remains in many provinces including Baghdad, Kirkuk and Nineveh where small-scale attacks, assassination and kidnappings continue. Women in particular are less safe now than at any other time during the conflict or in the years before.
The 19 page survey report, “In Her Own Words: Iraqi women talk about their greatest concerns and challenges,” is being released by Oxfam on International Women’s Day to highlight the daily hardships Iraki women face as a result of years of sanctions, war, and occupation.
This year’s survey is a follow up to Oxfam’s 2007 report ‘Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq,’ which found that one-third of the Iraqi population was in need of humanitarian assistance and that essential services were in ruins.
“In Her Own Words: Iraqi women talk about their greatest concerns and challenges,” is not, (and was never intended to be) a comprehensive assessment of the whole population. Instead it gives a profoundly disturbing snapshot of the grim and austere lives faced by all too many women in Irak.
One particularly shocking result is that the majority of women surveyed said that their access to such essential services as clean drinking water, or basic medical care, had either become worse or was the same in mid-2008 as it was in 2006 when the level of violence in Irak was considerably higher.
Seventeen hundred (1,700) women took part in the survey. They were selected to reflect the diversity of:
- Ethnic
- Religious
- Sectarian
- Geographic
- Economic and social
backgrounds found in Irak and and come from both urban and rural areas.
The Iraki charity who carried out the survey the Al-Amal Association [الْعَرَبيّة] , [English], are a partner organisation to Oxfam*. Working with local volunteers in each governorate, al-Amal selected a sample of women in five governorates:
- Baghdad
- Basra
- Kirkuk
- Najaf
- Nineveh
who would represent the different groups in order to paint the most accurate picture possible of Iraq as a whole.
The survey was completed in late May 2008. For the next few months the data was analysed. It was submitted to Oxfam at the start of Autumn.
The raw data was analyzed over the following months and submitted to Oxfam in the autumn. Once this was done individual stories were collected by al-Amal and another Iraki human rights organisation “Women for Peace”. A follow-up analysis to corroborate the initial findings was completed in early 2009.
The fact that the report contains both qualitative and quantitative data is one of its strengths the excerpts of the individual stories put a “human face” to the facts and figures and help the reader grasp the enormity of what these women struggle with every day.
Notes:
- *Oxfam themselves no longer have staff working inside Irak following severe and chronic security problems it withdrew them in 2004. Instead of having a direct presence Oxfam now provides support to Iraki and international aid agencies which are able to operate in Iraq.
- Oxfam have a photogallery of some of the women whose stories appear in the report. The photos by the talented and courageous Ceerwan Aziz are quite remarkable. I strongly urge you to take a look.
- The report can be downloaded from Oxfam’s site by following this link [PDF].
- This posting on Oxdown is a drastically shortened version of a posting on Gorilla’s Guides.
- On Gorilla’s Guides we have rather a lot of coverage in both Arabic and English, of Women’s Rights in Irak
markfromireland
15 Comments
Thank you MFI.
Selise started Digg up for us.
You’re welcome Laura.
The complete and miserable failure to pay any attention to the plight of Iraki women gets right up my nose. I did a lot of wandering around the net today to see how many sites had marked International Women’s Day with any sort of commentary or coverage dealing with the desperate situation of Iraki women. I wish I could say I was surprised at the dearth of postings but I’m not.
Thanks Selise.
I agree. There’s a dearth of ANY sort of posting on International Women’s Day this year. Mainly, it seems to have been done only at humanitarian aid org. blogs….
For those who are shy of PDFs: one story contained in the Oxfam report: Shafeeka
Shafeeka’s story is an entry on the the British Branch of Oxfam’s blog. There’s some entries there by the media and advocacy researcher with Oxfam in Gaza written during the assault on Gaza that are also well worth reading.
It’s very late here – I’ll check back tomorrow. I’ll leave my readers with another uncomfortable fact. According to the Freedoms Observatory last year there were at least 72 women killed and at least 15 women severely wounded killed by death squads or in so-called “honour killings”. Our experience is that as with all such statistics the Observatory is understating the case. Most such crimes go unreported.
Good night Mark. Thanks so much for this post.
Mark, thanks for the consciousness raising. Instead of a feminine paradigm shift to partnership and cooperation in this world which is so sorely needed (even as Mother Earth herself gets a sustained raping), the masculine paradigm of power and competition seems to intensify, in spite of its destructiveness, to levels of horrifying impoverishment and brutality for all, especially women and children. Rape as tool of war. Honor killings. Increase in religious discrimination. Human trafficking. Kidnappings.
Getting close up and personal with specific victims of the insane injustices … a necessary hallway to awaken our global conscience.
right on.
except i’d like to see the partnership/cooperation paradigm incorporated into a masculine paradigm as well. imo our ideas about feminine and masculine are pretty profoundly messed up.
selise… I was talking feminine = yin and masculine = yang energies… not biologically speaking… Patriarchal cultures disrespect “feminine” nurturing energy… and it seems are becoming all the more punishing to people and groups that espouse nurturance.
Humanism is probably a better word than feminism here because it doesn’t trigger gender defensiveness and confusion… and yet there is misogyny in the culture-kool aid so that even women discount the power of women as a gender group and as the “nurturing” role assigned to them by societies …. so I still am torn to the word “feminism” like I am to the word “liberal” … it has its hard-won essence despite modernist spin and disdain.
thanks for the response. i don’t know about yin/yang in any serious way, so that doesn’t really help me, other than to make me think i misunderstood your meaning? i just don’t like the idea that the “nurturing” role is assigned to any gender group by society. i agree that it has been, but like many things in our culture – i object.
btw, i have no problem with the word feminism. i wear it proudly and imo, there is no humanism without it.
Thank you MFI for this post and for the work you and Siun do to keep these issues in front of our faces.
I too was not surprised by the lack of coverage of Women’s Day.
I think that is another area where we need to hold the new adminstration’s feet to the fire since under the previous oaf the US was the only country out of 172 to refuse to sign the UN’s ‘children have a right to food’, among others.
The attitude of the US government makes me want to deny that I am a citizen here sometimes – and this whole mess in Iraq and Gaza is part of it.
Thank you again. I wish I could say it was a pleasure.
thank you mark.
This is a BIG problem but why is it that you don’t hear ANY politician speaking out about it? Looking back, does anyone else see the game the U.S. played at the U.N to absolve itself from the responsibilites of an occupying power? Why is it that the U.S. has taken steps to destabilze-I’m being nice when I say ‘destabilize’- Iraq and Afghanistan(goes back to the 50’s) where women were beginning to have some ‘normal’ rights associated with being human?
And going even farther back in history, ever since the ascension of the god of Abraham, women’s place in society has been demeaned and derided compared to what existed prior to that ascent. And what’s truly shameful for those who profess such beliefs is that those who are the ‘authorities’ on such religions IGNORE the teachings of their own prophets/messiahs.