Violence Against Women in Iraq: A MADRE Fact Sheet

An Epidemic of Violence

Since the US invasion, Iraqi women have been targeted with unprecedented levels of abduction, rape, domestic abuse, and sexual slavery.
The escalation of violence curtails all aspects of women�s lives. Women say they are afraid to leave their homes, even to obtain food, water, or medical treatment. Girls are being kept out of school and many women are now forbidden by their families to be in public without a male escort.
Domestic violence is also on the rise, with women�s organizations reporting a sharp increase in battering, forced marriage, and "honor killings," in which men murder women relatives who have been disobedient or survived rape, thereby "dishonoring" the family.
In many areas, Islamic militants now patrol the streets, beating and harassing women who are not �properly� dressed or behaved.¹ In the southern city of Basra, heavily armed religious extremists repeatedly storm into university classrooms and threaten to kill women without head coverings. Iraqi women�s organizations have accused Islamic groups of "taking revenge on each other by raping women."² Militants have assassinated several women who have promoted women�s political participation.

War commonly causes chaos and social breakdown that produces an upsurge in violence against women. In Iraq, that threat is compounded by the rise of religious extremists”some appointed to government directly by the US—who advocate violence against women as a way to enforce arbitrary interpretations of Islamic law.
As the occupying power, the US is obligated under the Hague and Geneva Conventions to safeguard the human rights of Iraqi civilians, including Iraqi women. The US has failed to meet these obligations. US authorities ignored appeals by Iraqi women�s organizations to train and dispatch security guards to help prevent violence against women in public and to prosecute domestic violence.³ And the US has failed to safeguard women's right in new Iraqi political bodies created under its occupation.

Support Iraqi women who are fighting for their rights and working to create a safe haven for women threatened by violence.
Make a donation to help provide food, medical care, training, and other necessities for women at the shelters run by MADRE�s sister organization, the Organization for Women�s Freedom in Iraq.

Sarah El Deeb, "Iraqi Women Deal With Mixed Legacy," LA Times, 26 January 2004.
International Campaign to End Rape, Abduction, and Killings of Women in Iraq," The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, (30 October 2003).
"Iraq: Letter to Paul Bremer form Yanar Mohammed Concerning the Security of Iraqi Women," CPTnet, 3 September 2003, (14 November 2003).