Women in Iraq
[6]: 22 A story featured in One Thousand and One Nights involves Tawaddud, “a slave girl who was said to have been bought at great cost by Harun al-Rashid because she had passed her examinations by the most eminent scholars in astronomy, medicine, law, philosophy, music, history, Arabic grammar, literature, theology and chess”.
[9] With the departure of the Mongols a succession of Persian rivalries followed until 1553, when the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman captured Baghdad and its provinces, which became parts of the Turkish empire.
Instability was dominating the region until 1968 when the Ba’ath Party took control over the President Al Bakr and Iraq began to enjoy a period of stability.
Government spending dropped from $620 before the Iran-Iraq War to $47; This decline happened slowly over time as Iraq as a country was suffering from economic challenges and put its budget elsewhere.
OWFI operates multiple shelters across Iraq for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, and it provides critical support to vulnerable minorities.
[34] Notably, OWFI'S shelters have served as a refuge for women escaping honor killings and trafficking, offering them not just a safe place but also vocational training and psychological support.
The circumstances resulting from the Gulf War and then the 1991 Iraqi uprisings, gave the Kurdish region of Iraq an essentially autonomous situation for a period, despite the conflicts between zones controlled by the largest nationalist parties.
During this period, Kurdish women activists began to demand legal reforms, better education, and protection from violence, laying the groundwork for future national movements.
[36] This recognition has helped OWFI to secure funding and support from international NGOs and human rights groups, enabling it to expand its programs and services.
[38] Some reported issues related to women in Kurdish society include genital mutilation,[39] honor killings,[40] domestic violence,[41] female infanticide[41] and polygamy.
and makes them second class citizens, lesser human beings For the same reasons, OWFI denounced the 2005 elections, dominated by parties hostile to women's rights.
[66] Women's groups also denounce "pleasure marriages", based on a practise commonly believed to be founded on Islamic law, which was revived during the occupation of Iraq: it authorizes a man to marry a woman, through a money gift, for a determined period of time.
[67] Female genital mutilation (FGM) was an accepted part of Sorani speaking Kurdish culture in Iraq, including Erbil and Sulaymaniyah.
[41][69][70] MICS reported in 2011 that in Iraq, FGM was found mostly among the Kurdish areas in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk, giving the country a national prevalence of eight percent.
[76] The Kurdistan Region has strengthened its laws regarding violence against women in general and female genital mutilation in particular,[41] and is now considered to be an anti-FGM model for other countries to follow.
[81] A field report by Iraqi group PANA Center, published in 2012, shows 38% of women in Kirkuk and its surrounding districts areas had undergone female circumcision.
[72] Female genital mutilation is prevalent in Iraqi Kurdistan, with an FGM rate of 72% according to the 2010 WADI report[78] for the entire region and exceeding 80% in Garmyan and New Kirkuk.
[70] A field report by Iraqi group PANA Center, published in 2012, shows 38% of women in Kirkuk and its surrounding districts areas had undergone female circumcision.
He also said that the government figures are much lower, and show a decline in recent years, and Kurdish law has mandated since 2008 that an honor killing be treated like any other murder.
A UNICEF survey of adolescent girls aged 15–19, covering the years 2002–2009, asked them if they think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances; 57% responded yes.
According to paragraph 409 "Any person who surprises his wife in the act of adultery or finds his girlfriend in bed with her lover and kills them immediately or one of them or assaults one of them so that he or she dies or is left permanently disabled is punishable by a period of detention not exceeding 3 years.
Examples of legal rights include: "The punishment of a wife by her husband, the disciplining by parents and teachers of children under their authority within certain limits prescribed by law or by custom".
[104][105] On October 2, 2020, a UN special rapporteur urged the Iraqi authorities to investigate the murder of a woman human rights defender, and the attempted killing of another, targeted “simply because they are women”.
[111] OWFI has set up an observation group of activists, directed by Dalal Jumaa, which focuses its action on the defense of the rights of women in prison and in police detention.
It has notably obtained authorization to regularly visit the Khadidimya prison, in Baghdad, and to denounce the detention conditions: rapes during interrogations, poor treatment, and the presence of children in the cells.
[115] In February 2004, OWFI launched a campaign to support fifty female bank employees held on charges of embezzling millions during exchange operations involving banknotes.
Nuha Salim declared: The insurgents and militias do not want us in the professional sphere for various reasons: some because they believe women were born to stay at home – and cook and clean -- and others because they say that it is contrary to Islam that a man and woman should find themselves in the same place if they are not related.
'[121]: 168 In the years following the 1991 Gulf War, many of the positive steps that had been taken to advance women's and girls’ status in Iraqi society were reversed due to a combination of legal, economic, and political factors.
[119] Moreover, Saddam Hussein, in an attempt to maintain legitimacy with conservative Islamic fundamentalists, brought in anti-woman legislation, such as the 1990 presidential decree granting immunity to men who had committed honour crimes.
The wide scale destruction of Iraq's infrastructure (i.e., sanitation, water supply and electricity) as a result of war and sanctions, worsened women's situation.
