[WCUSP] Fw: USLAW Information Service - Special International Women's Day Edition
Libby or Mort Frank
lmfrank1 at verizon.net
Sat Mar 8 05:52:57 CST 2008
(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
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In this email:
March 8, 2008
a.. 'National crisis' for Iraqi women
b.. Please Listen to the Women of Iraq
c.. Women's Day in Iraq
d.. "Stop the Theft of Iraq's Future - Iraqi Oil for the Iraqi People!"
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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.
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'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 . . . .
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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 . . . .
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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 . . . .
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D.C. labor, environmentalists and antiwar activists say "Stop the Theft of Iraq's Future - Iraqi Oil for the Iraqi People!"
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.
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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