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MADRE Report from Iraq

Nearly three years after George Bush launched his illegal invasion of Iraq, more Iraqi women live in fear of violence than even during the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein. The climate of fear is largely due to a sharp rise in gender-based violence, including abduction, rape, forced marriage, domestic battery, and honor killings, in which a woman is murdered by a male relative for "shaming" her family. Women have been targeted for honor killings for daring to make their own choices about whether and whom to marry, for adultery, and for bringing shame on the family by having been abducted or raped. These killings are not even considered murder: if a killer can demonstrate "honor" as a motive, his sentence is usually less than one year; and many cases of honor killings are never even reported.

With your support, MADRE and our sister organization, the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), are responding to this crisis. Since OWFI inaugurated Baghdad's first battered women's shelter, MADRE has helped OWFI to open four more shelters: in Nassariyeh, Kirkuk, Erbil and, most recently, we established a second shelter in Baghdad. For the frightened women who knock on the doors in the middle of the night, these shelters are the difference between life and death.

To protect the women who seek refuge there, each facility is hidden behind walls in a secret location protected by armed guards. And it's not only the women fleeing domestic abuse who are in danger. The women of OWFI, who work at the shelters and speak out for women's rights, have been targeted with death threats by militias who use violence against women as a tactic in their bid to establish an Islamic state in Iraq. Because of the grave danger both to the women using the shelters and to the OWFI volunteers, we cannot publish any photographs of activities at the shelters. But I want to assure you that, thanks to your support, these are vibrant, well-cared-for places. And they are literally saving lives.

Your support has ensured that the women's shelters stayed open despite the extreme financial hardship and dangers that our sisters confront. You have provided the OWFI shelters with urgently needed supplies, clothing, and food; security guards to provide protection; and doctors, counselors, and teachers to help the women at the shelters heal—physically and emotionally—and begin to rebuild their lives on a stronger foundation.

And now, OWFI and MADRE have launched a new campaign to combat honor killings: The Underground Railroad for Iraqi Women. Just as enslaved African Americans relied on a secret network of courageous individuals to help them make their way to freedom, Iraqi women who are threatened with honor killings need an escape route. With your support, MADRE's sister organization in Iraq, which is comprised of a network of dedicated women in cities across Iraq, will create this Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad for Iraqi Women will enable women to flee from relatives intent on murdering them. It will provide them with the means and social support to relocate and begin to build a new life. Meanwhile, OWFI will continue to advocate for women's human rights and for honor killings to be legally recognized as murder. As MADRE supports this courageous work, we will continue to demand an end to the US occupation of Iraq.

We at MADRE and our sisters in Iraq thank you for your support of this crucial program.

Updated February 2006