Iraq's Women: the other victims of the war

We hear an awful lot about the latest American troop fatalities on CNN and other news outlets on an almost daily basis, and in a way I'm thankful that they are still covering a story most Americans would rather forget. This morning at the gym I caught a brief CNN piece on work being done to help Iraqi widows. We hardly ever hear about the Iraqi victims of the war, so props to whoever at CNN managed to get the story through. Without, exactly, reporting on how or why they ended up being widows in the first place. But I digress.

When Iraq 2 started, many in the international relief community feared a refugee crisis. Four years later, it is finally coming to pass. According to the International Rescue Committee (full disclosure: I used to work for them), "The exact number of refugees who have fled to Syria and Jordan is not clear, but estimates are as high as two million—creating a massive strain on two countries that struggle to provide adequate services for their own populations."

Iraq before the US invasion was, despite the hideous abuses of the Saddam regime, relatively progressive in terms of women's rights--at least in comparison to its neighbors in the region. According to Women for Women International: "Women in Iraq have traditionally not suffered the same type of gender repression found in some other societies in the region. Earlier laws ensured education for girls, family rights (such as the rights to divorce and to own property), and the right to serve in the government and in security forces. As a result, some Iraqi women, particularly those from Baghdad and other urban areas, made significant professional gains in areas such as law, medicine, and the arts." Amidst the current instability, however, those freedoms are largely a thing of the past.

It's all well and good to say the responsibility lies with the new Iraqi government to ensure that Iraqi women don't see the clock turned back on their rights. But until the government has a leg to stand on, its up to aid agencies to fill the void (I'd like to think the US would help out more here, but we all saw how they relied on private agencies during Katrina and, well, Iraq isn't ever part of the continental US).

Find out more about what some of these groups are doing to help:
Women for Women International: http://www.womenforwomen.org/iraq.htm
International Rescue Committee: http://www.theirc.org/news/urgent-help-needed-for-iraqi.html