24.02.2005

We want rights

An appeal by the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq

Women and women's organisations worldwide are preparing to celebrate International Women's Day on March 8. The Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq is also preparing to celebrate inside Iraq and abroad. We congratulate women in Iraq and worldwide on this great day and call on women and men in Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan to hold celebrations on this day. Women in Iraq have not struggled to get rid of the Ba'ath regime (one of the most dreadful regimes humanity has ever known) only to be jailed in their homes, will-less, deprived of basic rights, threatened with death if they express an opinion or exercise their rights. This is what has happened to Iraqi women since the recent war. Since the US occupation began, the political islamists (both sunni and shia) have been unleashed to work 'freely' and launch a new attack on the rights of women in Iraq. It is an attack which sustains and deepens the violations of women's rights in Iraq which the fascist Ba'ath regime was engaged in for more than three decades and came to a point where women were beheaded in public places in front of their children and families. These islamic movements have made wearing the hijab compulsory for women at the point of a gun, violating a woman's basic right to choose what she wears. Many of the Ba'ath regime's laws are still in place. Polygamy and pleasure marriage (which is an organised form of prostitution) is a widespread practice. Thousands of women have been killed. Millions are confined to their homes and prevented from attending school, work or going about their daily lives and doing things like walking, shopping and going out to enjoy some recreational places. There are an unprecedented number of so-called honour killings. The Iraqi interim government has turned a blind eye to these crimes. Shocking though it may sound, killing women is not a crime in 'liberated' Iraq. The forces which created the current unbearable situation for women for the last two years are the same forces which are backed by the US and given enormous resources and influence to write new laws and to decide the rights of women in the coming 'parliament'. These forces will institutionalise sexual discrimination against women under the name of implementing 'islamic sharia' law. They will dedicate their courts and institutions to oppressing women and will treat us as inferior citizens. This is a danger to all women! Our rights, freedoms, safety and security are at stake! Now that we are only days away from celebrating March 8, we have to unite our ranks to make this a day where women and men in Iraq can come together to defend women's rights and struggle for their freedom and equality with men. We must unite our ranks to bring about laws which put women and men on an equal footing in all fields. Let us raise the demands (alongside women around the world) for an end to discrimination against women, an end to killing and terrorism against us. Let us make March 8 a day to unite women all over Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan with women worldwide in the struggle to extend women's rights, including: * The right to work * The right to education * The right to choose one's place of residency * The right to live safely and securely, to be protected against domestic violence * The right to choose a partner without coercion or threat * The right to travel without imposing companions on us Let us make March 8 a day to escalate our demand for an end to the US occupation and an end to islamic terrorism, to legislate a secular constitution in Iraq which separates religion from the state and to implement modern civil laws on all residents of Iraq, regardless of their gender, ethnicity and religion. Let us hold gatherings in every village, suburb, city, school, university and working place where women and men celebrate International Women's Day to make women's voices heard. We demand a free and equal world! Let us make this a day of resolve to continue the struggle to realise our demands and use all available means to turn these demands into rights that women can enjoy on a daily basis, similar to the rights now enjoyed by women in many countries. Long live March 8!