Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, joins us to discuss the impact of the nearly nine-year U.S. occupation, particularly on Iraqi women. “The Iraqi cities are now much more destroyed than they were, I would say, like five years ago,” Mohammed says. “In the same time, we have turned to a society of 99 percent poor and 1 percent rich, due to the policies that were imposed in Iraq.” Continue reading
Nov 23 2013
Iraqi Women’s Activist Rebuffs U.S. Claims of a Freer Iraq: “This Is Not a Democratic Country”
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/iraqi-womens-activist-rebuffs-u-s-claims-of-a-freer-iraq-this-is-not-a-democratic-country/
Nov 20 2013
Iraqi voices: For women, freedoms under fire
When I first met Yanar Mohammed in 2003, she was holding a megaphone and leading a women’s rally in Baghdad’s Firdos Square, standing in the shadow of a pedestal where a statue of Saddam Hussein had stood until U.S. tanks dragged it to the ground a few weeks earlier. With a head of uncovered dark curls and a raised fist, she led chants demanding improved security and equal civil rights for women. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/iraqi-voices-for-women-freedoms-under-fire/
Nov 19 2013
Message of Solidarity to Occupy Wall Street from the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq
Dear Occupy Wall Street, The people of the world are watching you, following your news and hoping that – rather than just vent your anger and frustration – you achieve all of your dreams. While democracy should guarantee all people an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives, you find yourselves forced to take to the streets, as politicians and bankers make decisions behind closed doors and hire an army of police to send you back home with nothing. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/message-of-solidarity-to-occupy-wall-street-from-the-organization-of-womens-freedom-in-iraq/
Oct 17 2013
20 year old OWFI activist Aya Al Lamie Kidnapped from Tahrir Square and tortured
Although the numbers of demonstrators became much less in the Iraqi Tahrir square, Aya Al Lamie insisted to join the demonstrators every Friday of the last months. She insisted to put a woman’s face on the Tahrir demonstrations and cooperated with all the organized groups in the square. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/20-year-old-owfi-activist-aya-al-lamie-kidnapped-from-tahrir-square-and-tortured/
Oct 15 2013
Yanar Mohammed — Iraqi Women’s Vigilant Champion
Although the focus of many media reports has been on Egypt’s Tahrir Square, there is another Tahrir Square that demands our attention — the one in Baghdad. On Friday, June 10, members of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) were attacked and sexually molested as they gathered there to make demands. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/yanar-mohammed-iraqi-womens-vigilant-champion/
Sep 25 2013
Iraqi Feminists Sexually Assaulted During Pro-Democracy Protests
In Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on Friday, four women participating in a pro-democracy demonstration were molested and beaten by government-sponsored protesters who swarmed the square. Those assaulted were a part of a 25-woman delegation from the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, the country’s leading women’s rights group, there to create a visible women’s presence in the pro-democracy movement. OWFI Director Yanar Mohammed explains: Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/activities/iraqi-feminists-sexually-assaulted-during-pro-democracy-protests/
Aug 25 2013
Iraqi Human Rights Activists Protesting for Democracy Are Sexually Assaulted and Beaten
June 10, 2011 – New York, NY – Today, MADRE learned that pro-democracy activists who gathered in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square were brutally attacked by un-uniformed forces. MADRE’s Iraqi partner group, the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), states that activists who gathered in the square to continue their weeks of protests for democracy, jobs and an end to corruption were beaten by armed men who were unleashed to disperse the protests. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/iraqi-human-rights-activists-protesting-for-democracy-are-sexually-assaulted-and-beaten/
Jul 25 2013
The Iraqi government detains and tortures peaceful demonstrators from Tahrir Square
In today’s demonstration of Tahrir square, the youth marched towards the bridge in order to cross to the Green Zone, and chanted the slogan of ‘Ousting the System’. The security forces – under the “General Commander of Armed Forces” Mr. Nouri Al Miliki gave orders to detain and torture all the organizers of the demonstration. Division 11 of the Iraqi army (army intelligence) took pictures of all the demonstrators including the OWFI women. The same division used civilian cars to arrest tens of demonstrators into detainment. Continue reading Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/the-iraqi-government-detains-and-tortures-peaceful-demonstrators-from-tahrir-square/
Jun 26 2013
Houzan Mahmoud, abroad representative of OWFI, tells us about her role in the struggle for equality in Iraq and Kurdistan
“There has been so much injustice and oppression in Iraq, for such a long time. To fight it is almost an obligation.” Houzan Mahmoud: was born in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1973. As a Kurd living under the regime of Saddam Hussein, she grew up with an intimate understanding of discrimination, injustice, lack of rights, and oppression—and the urgent need to resist them. From the mid 1970s, Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/houzan-mahmoud-abroad-representative-of-owfi-tells-us-about-her-role-in-the-struggle-for-equality-in-iraq-and-kurdistan/
Jun 25 2013
The Day of Iraqi Rage
Last Friday, February 25, was a historic day in Iraq. The revolution earthquakes in Egypt, Tunisia, and Lybia sent shockwaves in our direction.
The main squares of most Iraqi cities were filled with protestors raising same demands of providing electricity, employment, an end to governmental corruption, and a plea for general freedoms. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/activities/the-day-of-iraqi-rage/
Jun 25 2013
16 days of activism against gender violence – Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq
Military and militia politics defy civil societies and women: 16 Days of activism between the international day for elimination of violence against women (Nov 25) and the international day for human rights (Dec 10) witness a global participation in the campaign to escalate action to end violence against women. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/16-days-of-activism-against-gender-violence-organization-of-womens-freedom-in-iraq/
Jun 22 2013
Women of Iraq Left All Alone
An article by Yanar Mohammed written for TerraViva magazine which was dedicated for the UN Resolution 1325 on women in areas of conflict. A shorter version was published in their last issue. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/women-of-iraq-left-all-alone/
Jun 20 2013
Sex slave girls face cruel justice in Iraq
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) — At one of Baghdad’s two female juvenile prisons, the young Iraqi girls live in limbo, sadness and desperation permeating every aspect of their interrupted lives. Some face punishment for prostitution. Others are charged with ties to terrorism. And then there are the victims, also behind bars. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/sex-slave-girls-face-cruel-justice-in-iraq/
Jun 19 2013
Brutalised for Western profit
Iraqi activist Houzan Mahmoud is too young to remember the 1963 CIA-backed coup against Abdel Karim Kassem. Five years earlier General Kassem had ousted the Western-allied Iraqi monarchy and retrieved land and oil from the British-owned Iraq Petroleum Company. Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: http://www.owfi.info/EN/article/brutalised-for-western-profit/