No Justice w/o Peace and No Justice w/o Peace

Not going to segregate my moral concerns..

Now. Now Would Be Good.

International Women's Day in Iraq

Kathlyn Stone reminds us that conditions for women in Iraq have become much worse since the U.S. invasion.

International Women's Day, March 8, should be a global day of celebration over the economic, political and social achievements of women worldwide.
Instead I mourn what my government has done to the women of Iraq.

The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq have brought an alarming increase in violence against women, including "honor killings” by religious fundamentalists. Women who do not subordinate their role to that of property of male family members have no value among the fundamentalists.

The Iraq Freedom Congress, a grassroots political movement headquartered in Baghdad, issued a statement congratulating women worldwide on International Women’s Day and asked that people everywhere stand with the women of Iraq as they face oppression from sectarian gangs.

While hundreds of women have been murdered by religious gangs, unveiled women are routinely targeted and threatened with violence if they don’t wear hajibs and follow strict Islamic law. The government has not moved to stop the violence or the threats, according to the Iraq Freedom Congress.

“Iraq Freedom Congress stands at the forefront of the struggle to expel these bandits from Iraq,” said Amjad Al-Jawhary, an IFC spokesperson.

The international protests against sexual discrimination are growing louder every year, says Al-Jawhary, and yet in Iraq, “the discrimination against women by sectarian militias linked to mullahs in Iran and groups of Al Qaeda has reached the level of sexual genocide, particularly in the cities of Basra, Baghdad, Mosul and Diyala.
These groups have committed the most heinous crimes against humanity, and women in particular.”

The U.S. military occupation has “turned a blind eye” to the work of the religious gangs, said Al-Jawhary. He suggests that both the occupation forces and the present government have surrendered Iraq and future generations to the criminals through their failure to reign in the gangs.

"We must put an end to the killing of women,” said Fryal Akbar, head of the IFC’s Women’s Bureau at a press conference in Bagdad held earlier this year to draw attention to the escalation of violence against women.

“Women today have every right to defend themselves against the religious and sectarian gangs by all means." She also warned that the IFC will not stand by watching crimes being committed without consequences. "From our experience, these gangs will not put an end to their crimes unless serious action is taken."

A year ago today, Yifat Susskind of MADRE, an international women's human rights organization headquartered in New York, wrote “Since the United States invaded, Iraqi women have endured a wave of death threats, assassinations, abductions, public beatings, targeted sexual assaults and public hangings.

Both Sunni and Shiite Islamist militias direct much of this violence. These groups mushroomed across Iraq after the United States toppled the secular Baath regime. Ironically, the Shiite militias are the armed wings of the political parties that the U.S. boosted into power. Their aim is to establish an Islamist theocracy and their social vision requires the subjugation of women.”

Suhad Salim, another member of the IFC Women’s Bureau, described a young woman’s sense of hopelessness. “The deterioration of the security situation, the intervention of the political Islamic groups into everyone’s personal life and the enforcement of the Islamic law on the street has forced women to quit both school and work to stay home seeking safety. These conditions create desperation and hopelessness in life leading many women to buy shrouds and wait for their death.

“I asked Sawsan Ali of Althawra city who is 30 years old why she quit school and stays home. She has lost her ambition and tends to think about death. Sawson answered: “There’s no hope for safety in the foreseeable future, my rights as a woman do not exist. Everything is against me as a human: family, traditions and culture. Killing and terrorizing women have become a daily show. Why should I live? I cannot go to school safely or voice my opinion. Whatever I do is opposed by others. Basically nothing is left to live for, therefore I am preparing for death.”

International Women's Day

International Women's Day in Afghanistan; women still have a long way to go.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — It's in the voices of the young that hope can be found for women in Afghanistan.

While their mothers and grandmothers wept for their past on International Women's Day, the young girls laughed and sang for the future.

More than 1,000 women gathered at two events in Kandahar on Saturday to celebrate the day devoted to women's rights around the world.

Young women know a different Afghanistan than generations past - they can go to school and find work.
But neither they nor their elders know peace yet, and many said Saturday that is the only thing holding back the full advancement of women in Afghan society.

"When security becomes good, when it becomes safe and we feel we can leave our children outside, no bomb blasts, no kidnapping, nothing, that's when things will be better for women," said Rangina Farescshta, one of the women who attended a rally organized by the provincial women's council in Kandahar.

When the Taliban descended on Afghanistan over a decade ago, the public lives of women effectively came to an end.

The world gasped in horror as thousands of Afghan women were shrouded behind the veil of the burka, losing their jobs, their schools, even their ability to go out in public alone.

Since 2001 and the fall of the Taliban, women are slowly rising back up through the ranks of Afghan society. They sit in government, run hospitals and have regained the right to an education.
"This year is better than last year and the year before last year," said Dr. Farishta Bwar, who works in the department of public health. "Every day the women's life becomes a little better."

But a chilling list of statistics enumerate the hardships still facing the estimated 11 million women in Afghanistan, about half the population.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission recorded 2,374 cases of violence against women in 2007, including 165 cases of women setting themselves on fire. But the commission concedes the number doesn't really reflect Afghan society because such violent incidents often go unreported.
According to the United Nations, one woman in Afghanistan dies every 29 minutes due to reproductive health related complications.

Their average life expectancy is 44 years, about half that of a woman in Canada.
Though more than two million girls in Afghanistan are now registered for school, there are no numbers on how many actually attend class.

"There was a girl who was going to school and she was threatened and she left school altogether," said Foozia, 14, who still attend class at her school in Kandahar city where conditions are safe.
Foozia said she was at Saturday's rally because it's important to show support for the women of Afghanistan. "We want a peaceful Afghanistan where every woman will be able to ask for her rights," she said.

It's violence that made the old women cry at Saturday's rally.
One after the other, women who'd lost their sons, husbands and brothers to the fighting in Afghanistan rose, wrapped in white scarves, to share their stories.

Sobbing, they called for peace and for women's rights.

There are an estimated one million widows in Afghanistan, many under the age of 35, who face particular difficulty in society. Without men to provide for them, they must use whatever meagre skills they have to eke out a living, but more than 85 per cent of the women in Afghanistan are illiterate. Canada funds a number of programs aimed specifically at widows in Afghanistan. It also spends millions of dollars through the Canadian International Development Agency on education, health and human rights programs aimed improving the lot of all Afghan women.

But men still have control, said Farescshta. "Husbands, fathers, sons have the power to stop women from going outside to make society beautiful and make society educated," she said.
"Husbands, they (often) don't let their wives and sisters and mothers to do work outside, to get education for their children."

The young girls outside one of Saturday's rallies said their mothers and fathers were supportive of them being in school For Sabeera, 10, it's all she wants to think about.
She and her classmates, dressed in the glittery greens and reds of Afghanistan's national costumes, shook their heads with an emphatic "no" when asked if they want to grow up into a life like their mothers.
They don't wish to marry, nor have children, Sabeera said, they want to be doctors or teachers or police officers. An impish grin broke over her face as she stood to recite a poem she'd written.
"I am going to school of my own choice," she said. "There is competition among the girls in school. I do not want to be behind them. I have to be ahead of everyone. I have to succeed."

Stop the Clash

Blogging from NTEN, once again. Check out the winning video in NTEN's annual Techies awards, Stop the Clash of Civilizations, created by Avaaz.org. The video calls on people around the world to stand together and demand REAL peace talks in the Middle East from our leaders.

Sign the petition.