Modern Day Harriet Tubmans Help Iraqi Women Escape Violence
For the past six years, the daily headlines have been dominated by the war in Iraq and the political and social turmoil and widespread violence among Iraqi sectarian groups. Relatively removed from the reality of the war, Americans' attention has been primarily concerned with the number of deaths and injuries among American troops, and to a lesser extent, the impact on our military families, who carry the burden of sacrifice for the rest of the country.
Far from the headlines, there is another conflict going on in Iraq. Rarely reported in this country is the impact of the chaos on the Iraqi civilian population. Iraqis have lived without regular access to basic services like electricity and drinkable water for over six years. But the impact of the war has been particularly devastating to the women of Iraq.
Since the war began in 2003, according to international humanitarian agency, Oxfam, approximately 740,000 women have become widowed, thousands more have been left without fathers or brothers to protect them.
An unprotected woman in Iraq is extremely vulnerable. Women are being targeted for systematic violence specifically because of their gender. Until the U.S. invasion, rape was relatively rare in Iraq. In 2008, Amnesty International reported that "crimes specifically aimed at women and girls, including rape, have been committed by members of Islamist armed groups, militias, Iraqi government forces, foreign soldiers within the U.S.-led Multinational Force, and staff of foreign private military security contractors."
Most of these crimes against women have been committed with impunity since there are no laws governing rape in Iraq and the government does not keep record of rape cases.
Once a woman has been assaulted, she is subject to further discrimination and violence at the hands of her own family. Unless she runs away and is able to find shelter, often having to be smuggled out of the country, an Iraqi woman faces the prospect of being further victimized by the Iraqi system of "honor killings", in which the family seeks to restore honor by "washing its honor in her blood".
No one knows how many so called "honor killings" have taken place since the war began, but activists in Iraq and abroad believe it's thousands. In 2005 alone, over 2000 girls were raped according to Yanar Muhammed, a partner and director of the Organization For Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), a non-profit group that partners with MADRE, an international human rights organization for women, to provide a network of safe havens for women fleeing violence.
Like Harriet Tubman, a former African American slave who escaped the plantation and later helped create the network of underground routes that helped transport other slaves to freedom, OWLI and MADRE have co-founded two important projects that are helping Iraqi women flee violence. The Safe Houses project and the Underground Railroad for Iraqi Women provide emergency shelter for women in danger of "honor killings", and other forms of domestic violence and sex trafficking.
Diana Duarte, a spokeswoman for MADRE, told me that to date, they have established six shelters located in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Nasariyeh, and Erbil and are hoping to establish three additional shelters in 2009 if funding is available.
In addition to providing safe haven, the shelters offer skill-building workshops, education and leadership training to help equip women become active participants in the political process and support other women.
The Underground Railroad For Iraqi Women
Last spring, freelance reporter and former writer for the Boston Globe, Anna Badkhen, and photojournalist Mimi Chakarova, under protection of darkness and with security escorts, paid a visit to one of the safe houses in Baghdad's underground shelter system. Their report, Baghdad Underground, documents their visit to the shelter and appears in the August 4th issue of Ms. Magazine. Their report, Living In Hiding, also appears on the PBS Frontline /World series, Stories From A Small Planet.
What Badkhen and Chakarova discovered in their visit is chilling. Some facts:
Murder in Iraq is punishable by 15 years in prison.
Honor killing is punishable by 3-6 months in prison. Sometimes the men are let go because Iraqi law does not protect rape victims.
Very few women confront their rapist or file charges because they're either afraid of the stigma or of being raped again by police officers.
Violence against women is not sectarian. It's "everybody against everybody" according to Badkhen. In 2006, women could be pulled out of their cars and executed for driving. In 2007, they could be executed for not covering themselves properly or for walking outside without a male to accompany them.
In the summer of 2008, Oxfam conducted a survey of Iraqi women affected by the conflict in an attempt to determine the challenges they face and the kind of humanitarian assistance they need. 1700 women from various provinces across the country responded to the survey and reported their conditions had worsened since 2007.
Here's what the survey found:
• Nearly 60 per cent of women said that safety and security continued to be their number
one concern despite improvements in overall security in Iraq
• 55 per cent had been a victim of violence since 2003; 22 per cent of women had been
victims of domestic violence; More than 30 per cent had family members who died
violently
• 45 per cent of women said their income was worse in 2008 compared with 2007 and 2006
• 33 per cent had received no humanitarian assistance since 2003
• 76 per cent of widows said they did not receive a pension from the government
• Nearly 25 per cent of women had no daily access to drinking water and half of those who
did said it was not potable; 69 per cent said access to water was worse or the same as it
was in 2006 and 2007
• One-third of respondents had electricity three hours or less per day; two-thirds had six
hours or less;
• Nearly half of women said access to quality healthcare was more difficult in 2008
compared with 2006 and 2007
• 40 per cent of women with children reported that their sons and daughters were not
attending school
These statistics point to a deteriorating situation for women and for the people of Iraq, even as American troops are gradually leaving the country.
Following is a slide show filmed by Mimi Chakarova at the shelter she and Badkhen visited in Baghdad. What you're about to see is not being reported on the nightly news. You might find this story disturbing. It's also very real. The narrator is Chakarova. Please watch:
I contacted Anna Badkhen to ask how people might get involved to support these women. She responded, "MADRE and OWFI are renting low-key apartments to house the shelters. Last month the Iraqi government allowed OWFI to run one "hospitality house," without specifying that it's a shelter for women -- so it basically tacitly allowed the organization to have a shelter without calling it a shelter, and without specifically giving permission."
This is hopeful. And it's a drop in the bucket. So much more is needed. This is where you and I come in. Independently of this report, I've been reflecting on the work of Harriet Tubman and the audacity she showed in no longer being willing to be enslaved. She escaped the plantation because in her mind, she was already free. The rest of her journey was about bringing that mental construct into fruition. The spirit of Harriet Tubman lives on today through organizations like OWFI and MADRE and through people like you.
You can help fund the work being done to support Iraqi women find freedom by sending donations to MADRE . Your donations will help MADRE and OWFI continue their work as modern day Harriet Tubmans.
OWFI's founding statement declares: "There is a huge emancipatory and secular force in this society that aims at achieving freedom and a better life for women . . . Women in Iraq deserve another kind of life; one that is full of freedom, equality and prosperity." May it be so.
My thanks to Anna Badkhen for her stellar reporting and raising awareness on this issue, for her body of work as a foreign correspondent, for her 13 trips to Iraq since the war began and for becoming my newest Facebook friend. You can read her report on Hope For Abused Iraqi Women here or pick up the latest issue of Ms. magazine.
And my thanks to you, dear readers, for being here. I hope you'll continue to come along on this journey to bring to our collective awareness those things that touch the soul and shine a light on the human condition. Sometimes they're are not always pretty or happy, but neither should we turn our backs or look away. For within our collective suffering lies the path to our collective freedom.
May the spirit of Harriet Tubman bring freedom to all who are enslaved.
I welcome your thoughts and comments on this topic. Please also visit my personal blog and website: Rx For The Soul at www.judithrich.com. You can leave personal messages for me there or send me a friend request on Facebook and let me know you're a reader.
Blessings on the path.
Follow Dr. Judith Rich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dr_judithrich
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Talks Emmanuel Jal: The music of a war child
http://www.ted.com/talks/emmanuel_jal_the_music_of_a_war_child.html
So very, very glad we went to Iraq to save them from such a brutal dictator and made their lives so much better.
This is too be expected in a religious system that is based in idea that you need to control your enviroment, to eliminate temptations, instead of working on the inside, to look directly at the lust inside and learn to let it cook in it's own juices. The problem is lust will win as soon as there is an opening if not dealt with, no matter the outward controls, this is why prohibition never works, this is why an addict must want to quit and cannot be forced. If you assume that men are uncontrollable rapists, and so the only thing is to completly control women so they don't "tempt" men it will produce results, as is seen here in Iraq, as well as in a lot of other countries.
What?
Off Subject:
"Meat-eating is the small print; war is the blown-up picture."
--Sri Chitrabhanu
Arithianos;
You seem to have forgotten the piece opens with the voice of an American maledescribing eight rapes he witnessed himself. The rapes he describes are almost definitely rapes by Americans. Rape is a problem for women in America and they too don't report it. Why bother. In Alaska you have to pay $1.000.00 for the kit a doctor needs to get the proof of the sexual encounter. And that alone will not get you through the horrific experience of the second rape of the judicial trial. And that isn't confined to Alaska where rapes are twice as high as in the lower forty eight. America has not got a great record re dealing with rape. And American men are as likely to rape as men of any other nationality. Probaly more than most. American is steeped in a tradition of women being sexobjects with no right to say no to anything.
OK, i don't remember saying Americans are not rapists, but i agree with you of course, the oposite extreme is no good either, neither supression nor expression is workable, the only true way is the middle path of controlling yourself and your own senses, and not trying to control the outside, either through open sexuality of the West, or the repression of the extemist Islamist.
See Kari Henley's Profile
Wow, Judith. This is such a powerful and well researched post! I am shocked to learn about this, and thank you for bringing it to our attention.
I heard Eve Ensler speak once about her travels around the world, and the horrors of violence against women that continue to occur every day.
The video clip is shocking, and well done. Sometimes it is hard to take the time to watch, but this one is worth it.
Thank you for bringing our attention to these two brave organizations working hard to make a difference. Just like "Three Cups of Tea"- everyone can make a difference, but becoming aware, and reaching out like you have.
Brilliant.
Kari
"We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators" was what Dick Cheney said prior to the Iraq war. Certainly not Womens' liberation, and a good example of how the invasion of Iraq was in no way to help any Iraqis, but to attempt to loot the country of its natural resources.
Indeed, Colinmeister, I'm afraid this is true. Liberators? Seems like we really don't care much about the Iraqi people or their fate.
What is our role and responsibility after the troops are gone? Can we just turn our backs and walk away and wash our hands of the chaos that will ensue?
The Iraqi people speak of relative stability under Saddam Hussein. We may have removed a dictator, but we've unleased decades worth of instability and continued bloodshed in that part of the world. These are the prices the people there will pay that will never be reported on the nightly news.
Meanwhile, we'll drink our lattes and go shopping. Seems like we have some accounting to do. I had to imagine how the ledger will be balanced.
Best to you,
Judith
It's quite terrible to find the truth in the statement of the slide that one night of anarchy is worse than years of tyranny.
I don't see any solution at all to this problem without the religious leaders in Iraq openly delegitimizing honour killings.
Hello DiogenesOfAlaska,
Yes, that has to happen. Can it happen? Will it happen? How to change a deeply embedded cultural condition? Iraqi women need to be empowered to stand up for their rights and become activists, just as the Iranian women have. Organizations like MADRE and OWFI are making a difference, but the numbers are still very small and so far, there is no political process in the country. Women are so devalued, they have no voice. Yet they're also the hope for the future.
It's a disturbing situation for sure. All the more reason for the rest of us to be aware and shine a light on it.
Thanks for your comment,
Judith
At the moment, absolutely MADRE and OWFI are extremely helpful.
And it is no doubt very difficult to change those traditions. In fact these honour killings happen frequently even in western countries among immigrant families. For example, there are several such cases in Germany, and it very much is against the law in Germany - it is murder or manslaughter. It still happens.
But maybe this fact - that it also happens outside the arab world - could actually help in exerting pressure on the religious leaders. It's one of those issues where religious tolerance provides no excuse at all - and in fact should not be exercised - and is not exercised in the event of crime.
Diogenes,
I thought the same thing when I was that quote. See my response to Colinmeister..... relative stability inside years of tyranny under Saddam Hussein were undone and the country has descended into a living hell of chaos. Who's to say we've liberated anyone? Doesn't look that way to me.
Judith
See Anne Naylor's Profile
Dear Judith,
Your post shocks and disturbs me, that women in our time should live under such terror and violence. I am grateful that their issue has been highlighted by the journalists who visited the shelter and also by your reporting.
I hope that your words will be the beginning of actions to take place that will begin to reverse this situation for women in Iraq. It is good that we know about it.
With love and appreciation to you,
Anne
Thank you, Anne.
The plight of the world's women is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. Given our accountability for the situation in Iraq, it seems unconscionable that we turn our backs on this heinous situation.
I am so grateful that organizations like MADRE exist. Anything we can do to support them will support women in need of humanitarian aid all over the world.
As always, blessings to you dear Anne,
Judith
I am curious as to how you think we might improve this situation, as horrible as it is. You are right that the U.S. is accountable for this, as the violence against women was not nearly as bad before the U.S. invasion. But other than leave the country and allow Iraqi society to heal itself, what is there to do? Any intervention by the U.S., even in the name of humanitarianism, is usually catastrophic. And I am sure that the last thing Iraqi women want is more “help” from the U.S.
Dearest Judith,
Thank you, as always!, for your thoughtful and thought provoking blog. As I sit finishing my coffee, feeling the sunshine and coolness of the morning air, planning my free, empowered, errand-filled day, your article brought me up short. Thank you for the reminder that life is not only as I see it ... and as long as others suffer, we all suffer. I've made a donation to MADRE, at the link below. If others are moved, please contribute to helping our sisters around the world. We truly are one family ...
With a deep bow to you, dear sister.
https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5095/t/3527/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=102
Thank YOU, dear Lise......
I'm inspired by YOU! I know MADRE will appreciate your support and so will its recipients. A small donation will help to fund a low cost "hospitality house" for these women and make a difference.
Bless you!
Judith
Hi Judith,
Thanks for bringing to light this poignant vision of the third world. Often as I hear or read comments for both left and right in this country, I think about the views presented through the lens of privledged prosperity that we in the west can think of as normal. As much suffering and abuse that happen in the U.S., it is still minimal compared to societies which operate under mores or religions that regard women is lessor then men and allow men carte blanc in their treatment of women. I'll never understand men who fail to accept a full partnership with the woman in their lives, yet I feel no sympathy for them either because of their domination and often cruelty.
good luck,
little brother
Dear MerhabaAbi,
Yes, we in this country have nothing to compare to the treatment of women in Iraq and Afghanistan, except for sex trafficking, which goes on both here and there.
Little brother, if all men were as sensitive as you, this problem wouldn't exist. May your voice be shared and heard by others.
Many thanks,
Judith
In a recent article in the 2009 Summer issue of Quest Magazine "The Story to Tell" Betty Bland writes:
"We cannot dismiss the power of suffering by the flippant attitude that "they have brought it upon themselves and just have to deal with it." Things happen that have complex causes and complex solutions. We have to deal with the paradigm in which we are presently caught."
Dear AngieMom57,
I'm glad to see you here! How are you? I think of you often.
I'm both disturbed and inspired by this story. I guess that's the line we walk. The question is: what to do? I just sent in a donation to MADRE. I intend to be shining a light on this subject in further posts.
Blessings to you dear woman,
Judith
Yes, how to "deal with the paradigm in which we are presently caught"...
I am all for "Pay it Forward" only $5.00 times hundreds of thousands of like donations/Paying it Forward, will certainly add to the healing energy of this situation...any situation in our present paradigm is acknowledged by all levels of energy.
The emotional energy that we give when we cry.
The physical energy that we give when we pick up the phone use our voice.
The mental energy that we give when we express our support.
And...
The monetary energy ...
I'm fine I'll send you an email via your site...
In nepal, there is the beauty system parlor. women gather there and pull resources to help a woman leave her husband if ness. this has been going on all over the world for 1000's of years. women helping women.
Dear Pema,
Yes, women have always helped each other. That's the essence of the Feminine principle, the Nurturing Mother archetype. Harriet Tubman did the same and her spirit endures to help others find their way to freedom.
Blessings and thanks for stopping by,
Judith
It is amazing to me that in 2009 we would be in need of a Harriet Tubman. I feel shame and disgust about this article. How difficult for women of any race, creed or color in this world of ours today. However, I know we must not give up hope. With every difficulty comes ease and this too shall pass. If someone can let me know how can I help the current situation in some small way. I would be gratful.
Dear reader1
Even a small donation to MADRE can help fund housing for these women.
https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5095/t/3527/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=102.
You can also stay informed by vising their website: www.madre.org.
I appreciate your concern and best of luck,
Judith
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