Fighting for women’s rights in Iraq, not an easy job

 

Yanar Mohammed is a tiny woman with very delicate manners. I met her about a month ago, days before her hearing at the UN Security Council on October 13. She came to New York to talk about the current status of Iraqi women. She wanted the world leaders to know what the Iraqi government was not doing to help them. She hoped her speech would raise awareness for a political push to create new laws for women.

“Since 2003 Iraq made a step backward in terms of women’s freedom and rights,” she said. Yanar  blamed the US invasion for what happened to her country. She explained the aftermath politics  of the invasion excluded most of the secular parties. “I remember this long list of new political figures that wanted to participate in the creation of a new Iraq. They were banned from any form of political participation.”

The result was the Iraqi Constitution is based on Sharia law, she claimed. Women and minorities had the worst faith.

Mohammed created in 2003 the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, aka OWFI. She run an underground shelter for women escaping violence. Please read her interview I wrote for Quartz.

From that moment she helped women get a secure place to live and shelter. She helped hundreds. Human trafficking flourished in the past twelve years, and now with ISIS more women are in need. “At least a quarter of a million.”

The main problem is that she became a target herself. “Not just for terrorists, but for officials too,” she continued. Yanar lives with threats and she can’t reveal where she lives. She doesn’t care about the risks, she is willing to do her part for a better Iraq. “I am a feminist,” she said.