[WCUSP] Fwd: USLAW Information Service - Special International Women's Day Edition
Tura Campanella Cook
turacc at earthlink.net
Sat Mar 8 07:37:54 CST 2008
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Libby or Mort Frank" <lmfrank1 at verizon.net>
> Date: March 8, 2008 5:52:57 AM CST
> To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
> Subject: Fw: USLAW Information Service - Special International Women's
> Day Edition
>
> (My greetings to you for International Women's Day, Libby)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: U.S. Labor Against the War
> To: lmfrank1 at verizon.net
> Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2008 3:24 AM
> Subject: USLAW Information Service - Special International Women's Day
> Edition
>
> Not subscribed to this newsletter? Subscribe now! Unsubscribe
> information at bottom.
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> In this email:
> March 8, 2008
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 1
> 'National crisis' for Iraqi women
> 2 Please Listen to the Women of Iraq
> 1 Women's Day in Iraq
> 1
> "Stop the Theft of Iraq's Future - Iraqi Oil for the Iraqi People!"
>
>
>
> Please forward this email to friends and colleagues!
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> Women are half the world's people
>
> who do two-thirds of the world's work.
>
> They earn one tenth of the world's income
>
> and own one hundredth of the world's property.
>
> Source: United Nations.
>
> 'National crisis' for Iraqi women
> BBC News
>
> The situation for women in Iraq has become a "national crisis" since
> the US-led invasion in 2003, a report by an international women's
> group has warned.
>
> Women for Women International said they had had relative autonomy and
> security, but now faced violence, controversial leadership and poor
> infrastructure.
>
> Almost two-thirds of the 1,500 women questioned for the national
> survey said violence against them had increased.
>
> The report was issued ahead of International Women's Day on Saturday.
>
> 'Focus lost'
>
> According to Women for Women's 2008 Iraq Report, shortly before the
> US-led invasion, "women's rights and gender equity were mentioned as
> symbolic issues for Iraq's new national agenda".
>
> "However, as the overall situation in Iraq began to deteriorate after
> the invasion, the focus on women was lost in the problems and violence
> facing the country as a whole," it said.
>
> It has been five years since the American invasion of Iraq and still
> no-one has stopped to listen to what this critical mass of the
> population, women, have to say about solving the problems Zainab
> Salbi, Women for Women International
>
> "Present-day Iraq is plagued by insecurity, a lack of infrastructure
> and controversial leadership, transforming the situation for women
> from one of relative autonomy and security before the war into a
> national crisis," it added.
>
> A similar survey undertaken by the organisation in 2004 found that
> despite the fact that none of the women felt their families' most
> basic needs were entirely met, 90.6% were optimistic about the future.
>
> But in late 2007, the nationwide poll of 1,513 Iraqi women found only
> 26.9% continued to be optimistic about the situation in their country.
>
> According to the report, 63.9% or those questioned said violence
> against women was increasing.
>
> Balance of article . . . .
>
> Please Listen to the Women of Iraq
>
> Huffington Post
>
> Zainab Salbi
> March 6, 2008
>
> I hadn't been to my homeland, Iraq, since so many professional Iraqi
> women started to be assassinated, including one of my good female
> friends, in fall of 2004. In February I traveled the country to visit
> with Women for Women International's courageous Iraqi staff -- who
> have served nearly 4,000 women since 2003 -- and to interview women
> who participated in the study released this week by our organization.
>
> The "Stronger Women, Stronger Nations: 2008 Iraq Report" asked more
> than 1,500 Iraqi women what they thought about the status of their
> country five years after the U.S. invasion and what their hopes and
> dreams were for the future. In my visit, I found a destroyed country
> that has been overwhelmed with death and fear. I found a country in
> which the status of women has become substandard in many ways.
> Despite all of that, women continue come forward to ask for security,
> jobs and national unity. Perhaps it is time for the world to hear
> what they have to say.
>
> I knew going in that 27 percent of the women we interviewed this year
> said they were optimistic about the future compared to 90 percent who
> expressed optimism in a similar study we conducted in 2004. I didn't
> know what that meant on a personal level until I heard news about a
> place very important to me. Four years ago, I was in Baghdad
> celebrating my brother's wedding at our family's home. One of the
> first things I heard in my way from the airport to the city was how
> this home has been taken over by one of the militias.
>
> My colleague who picked me up turned to me in the car and said:
> "Zainab, remember the basketball hoop your family put in the
> cul-de-sac in front your home? Al-Mahdi militia have been using the
> basketball pole to execute Sunnis." I couldn't believe what he was
> telling me. "Zainab," he continued, "every day I saw tens of bodies
> lying in front of your house after being executed. Every day there
> was a body hanging from the basketball pole. Your home has turned
> into an execution center." I was going to throw up. All my childhood
> memories were in this house. Memories of laughter, tears, sorrow,
> fear, love and joy have all been violated. All of a sudden I
> understood the results we had in our study about optimism. I knew why
> 89 percent of respondents believe that someone in their family will be
> killed in the next year.
>
> I no longer recognized Baghdad. Each neighborhood is now controlled
> by a different militia. We never talked about Sunni/Shi'ah as much as
> everyone is talking about it today. We never thought about the idea
> of splitting the country into federations more or less divided along
> sectarian lines. We never had as many religious symbols as we have in
> the city now -- so much so that a new visitor could never believe that
> Baghdad was once a secular city where religion was seen and respected
> as part of its citizens' private lives but not as the public
> definition of the city.
>
> Balance of article . . . .
>
> Women's Day In Iraq:
>
> Surviving Somehow Behind a Concrete Purdah
>
> Dahr Jamail, Common Dreams/Inter Press Service
>
> Published on Thursday, March 6, 2008
>
> WASHINGTON - Iraq, where women once had more rights and freedom than
> most others in the Arab world, has turned deadly for women who dream
> of education and a professional career.0306 04
>
> Former dictator Saddam Hussein maintained a relatively secular
> society, where it was common for women to take up jobs as professors,
> doctors and government officials. In today's Iraq, women are being
> killed by militia groups for not conforming to strict Islamist ways.
>
> Basra police chief Gen. Jalil Hannoon told reporters and Arab TV
> channels in December that at least 40 women had been killed during the
> previous five months in that city alone.
>
> "We are sure there are many more victims whose families did not report
> their killing for fear of scandal," Gen. Hannoon said.
>
> The militias dominated by the Shia Badr Organisation and the Mehdi
> Army are leading imposition of strict Islamist rules. The
> Shia-dominated Iraqi government is seen as providing tacit and
> sometimes direct support to them.
>
> The Badr Organisation answers to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council
> (SIIC), the Shia bloc in the Iraqi government. The Mehdi army is the
> militia of anti-occupation Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
>
> Women who do not wear the hijab are becoming prime targets of
> militias, residents both in Basra and Baghdad have told IPS in recent
> months. Many women say they are threatened with death if they do not
> obey.
>
> "Militiamen approached us to tell us we must wear the hijab and stop
> wearing make-up," college student Zahra Alwan who fled Basra to
> Baghdad told IPS last December.
>
> Balance of article . . . .
>
>
> D.C. labor, environmentalists and antiwar activists say "Stop the
> Theft of Iraq's Future - Iraqi Oil for the Iraqi People!"
>
>
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>
> One year ago, the Iraqi Cabinet, under intense pressure by the United
> States government, passed an Oil Law that is now awaiting Parliament's
> approval. The proposed Oil Law is a plan to give Big Oil
> unprecedented control over Iraq's oil fields for 30 years. The U.S.
> government collaborated with corporate oil giants in this resource
> grab, and has continued to put pressure on Iraq to pass the law.[1]The
> Iraqi Parliament has so far resisted pressure to pass it, but their
> struggle is by no means over.
>
> In response to this pressure, the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions is
> mobilizing an international day of actionand will be holding protests
> in Basra and elsewhere against the ongoing occupation and proposed oil
> law. US labor, environmental and antiwar organizations are joining
> the 70% of Iraqis who oppose the passage of the Oil Law in this day of
> solidarity. See a list of all US, UK, and Iraq Actions
>
> "Iraq, ever since the occupation started, and now, is producing oil
> without an oil law," said Hassan Juma Awad, President of the Iraqi
> Federation of Oil Unions. "Therefore we think the insistence of
> passing a law under the current circumstances is a trick to bring in
> international oil companies."
>
> The oil workers unions have played a leading role in fighting
> privatization of Iraqi oil. "Because of an opposition to the oil
> law, we find all kinds of condemnation from the government, and our
> workers understand fully that the campaign waged against us is because
> of our opposition to the oil law," Awad said. "The Iraqi people need
> such a law, but we need to gain our full sovereignty before such a law
> is enacted."
> (Iraqi Worker, Activists Demand Hands Off Iraqi Oil 6/6/07 UC)
>
>
>
>
> On Friday, Feb. 22, at noon U.S. Labor Against the War, Oil Change
> International, and allied organizations (listed below) convened a
> press conference and conducted a street action in Washington, D.C., in
> solidarity with the unions of Iraq to oppose U.S. attempts to impose
> an Oil Law that would privatize control of their national resources,
> and to demand respect for labor rights for Iraqi workers.
>
>
>
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>
> The press conference was addressed by Gene Bruskin, National
> Co-Convenor of USLAW, Adam Kokesh representing Iraq Veterans Against
> the War and Trina Zahller of Oil Change International.
>
>
> Gene Bruskin presented an "Open Letter" to Prime Minister Maliki and
> President Bush signed by four hundred trade union leaders, members and
> labor allies in support of the demands of Iraqi unions.
>
>
> Balance of article . . . .
>
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