OWFI’s Statement for IWD: Women of Iraq have gradually let go of most of their 20th century gains and privileges in the last 4 years of occupation. Iraq turned from a modern country of educated and working women into a divided land of Islamic and ethnic warlords who compete in cancelling women from the social realm. Millions of women’s destinies are wasted between the destructive US war machine and different kinds of Islamic rule who have turned women into helpless black objects of no will or worth. Continue reading

Today in many societies in the Middle East, women are regarded as second or third class citizens. Recognition of women as free human beings equal to men is off the agenda for all governments in the region. Every year thousands of women fall victim to so-called “honour killings”, commit suicide under pressure by setting fire to themselves and suffer from daily abuses and violence. Women are active fighting for their rights in all public spheres, including as workers, in many societies, but again the culture of religious patriarchy is so dominant that we are still not free individuals on our own right. Continue reading

After starting a campaign against article 7 in the Kurdistan’s regional constitution which makes women and the society vulnerable to Islamic Shariaa, Houzan received on February 26th an email titled (kill), threatening as follows: “With the permission of Great God, we will kill you either in Iraq or in London by the middle of March, because you are campaigning against Islam. You should be sent to God for punishment.” The threat is signed by Ansar Al Islam, a Sunni Jihadi group in Kurdistan of Iraq. Continue reading

About the rape of Sabrine in Iraq: The Iraqi society was shocked with an unprecedented issue of a woman stepping forward voluntarily and admitting to have been sexually assaulted by Iraqi security forces. Instead of pursuing further investigation into this assault allegation, or empowering the victim with moral support, the opponent Islamist sectarian factions competed to exploit the matter politically preparing the ground for bloody sectarian conflict. They symbolized Sabrine’s rape as an assault against the whole “Sunni religious group”.   Continue reading

More than ever, women are claiming that wearing the veil, burqa or niqab is their own decision. I totally reject this view. The veil is not merely a piece of “cloth”, but a sign of the oppression of women, control over their sexuality, submissiveness to the will of God or a man. The veil is a banner of political Islam used, to segregate women born by historical accident in the so-called “Islamic World” from other women in the rest of the world. Continue reading

On the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Houzan Mahmoud says that women in the country are bearing the brunt as things go from bad to worse. On March 20, the Iraqi people have reached the dismal milestone of the third-year point since the United State-led invasion of Iraq. From the shock and awe of the aerial bombardment of 20 March 2003, they are now contemplating a fourth year of continuing terrorism, extreme insecurity, destruction, and the daily violation of women’s rights. Continue reading

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TUESDAY 07 MARCH 2006, IRAQI WOMEN’S RIGHTS EXPERT IN WALES.

Houzan Mahmoud visits National Assembly for All Party Group discussions. Tomorrow, International Women’s Day, Amnesty International will host Houzan Mahmoud, an expert on women’s freedom in Iraq on a visit to the National Assembly for Wales. Continue reading

On Wednesday the 22nd of February, Iraqi people witnessed the darkest day of their modern history. The new democracy, as designed by George Bush and reinforced by his ambassador Khalil Zadeh, has matured to the point where sectarian and civil war is only one tool of political pressure of one governmental group to get a bigger share in the government. Continue reading