From battered women to activists: Iraqi women fight violence to help others

[size=52]From battered women to activists: Iraqi women fight violence to help others[/size]

[size=45]Azhar rushes to her office in one of the public administrations in Baghdad before the end of work. She gathers her things before she goes to start giving legal courses to battered women, taking advantage of her bitter experience in getting her family out of the hands of a man who "almost died" at his hands.[/size]
[size=45]For years, she faced her family, social norms, and a law that did not prioritize women's issues, before she managed to get a divorce from a violent man she married under family pressure after being widowed at a young age.[/size]
[size=45]"I felt weak before the law, so I decided to study" law, said Azhar, 56, who is now a human rights activist involved in the Iraqi Women's Network.[/size]
[size=45]She adds that after she obtained her university degree in law, she started to help "other women from my knowledge and experience... so that they know their rights and be able to defend themselves... Any woman who is abused or who needs legal aid, I support."[/size]
[size=45]In a largely patriarchal and conservative society, NGOs and feminist activists are leading the battle to defend women's rights in the face of violence, denouncing the authorities' inaction in addressing these cases and laws that do not do justice to women.[/size]
[size=45]From her handbag full of papers, Azhar takes pictures documenting the effects of a severe beating she suffered at the hands of her husband. "I thought I almost died," she says.[/size]
[size=45]And she adds, on her face, which was wrapped in a scarlet scarf, signs of defiance, "That was in 2010, when I decided to break the collar and file a severance lawsuit, but the judge knew my husband, and he dismissed the lawsuit."[/size]
[size=45]She continues, “I submitted to the judge three medical reports documenting the physical harm that I sustained. His answer was: (I will not separate a family on the basis of medical reports, and what if a man beats his wife?).[/size]
[size=45]Ten years later, Azhar obtained a divorce. During that time, she rented a house of her own with her eight children, and worked three jobs to support them, including giving private lessons and driving a taxi.[/size]
[size=45]at the expense of the victim[/size]
[size=45]The Family Protection Unit in the Ministry of Interior counted “17,000 cases of husband assaulting a wife during the year 2021,” according to what the director of relations and information in the ministry, Major General Saad Maan, told AFP. The unit's hotline receives about 100 calls a day in Baghdad only to report violence against women.[/size]
[size=45]A census of the Iraqi Ministry of Planning showed an increase in the percentage of underage marriage during ten years. “25.5 percent of women got married before reaching the age of 18 and 10.5 percent before reaching the age of 15,” while the two percentages in 2011 were 21.7 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.[/size]
[size=45]The Director of the Family Protection Unit at the Ministry of Interior, Ali Muhammad, says that most cases, even after being referred to the judiciary, end in reconciliation.[/size]
[size=45]However, activist Hana Edwar believes that “reconciliation always comes at the expense of the victim.” Hana Edwar headed the Iraqi “Al-Amal” organization, which counted more than 1,800 cases of domestic violence among its six centers in Kirkuk this year. The organization has two other centers in Najaf and Basra.[/size]
[size=45]And the feminist activist for more than 50 years adds, “We note that the sensitivity of the judiciary with regard to gender, with regard to women, is much weaker than the masculinity with which the minds of judges are caught.”[/size]
[size=45]This view is shared by lawyer Marwa Elaiwi, president of the "For Her" organization, which provides legal services to women. "The courts and the Supreme Judicial Council do not consider women's issues as a priority, but rather treat them as ordinary cases," she says.[/size]
[size=45]The 1969 Penal Code applies to cases of violence against women or is often treated as ordinary misdemeanour. This law drops the punishment for the rapist if he marries his victim, and this is one of the most prominent articles that women's associations demand to abolish.[/size]
[size=45]The domestic violence bill, for which several local organizations are working, has been in Parliament since 2010, after Islamist parties obstructed its passage.[/size]
[size=45]Alawi explains that, “Perhaps the most important thing in the bill is the establishment of shelters for abused women.”[/size]
[size=45]"Out of prison"[/size]
[size=45]The authorities finally acted after a case of violence sparked outrage in public opinion.[/size]
[size=45]Maryam, 16, was subjected to acid mutilation by a man whom she refused to marry, as her family told local TV channels. When the case came out to the local media seven months after the crime, officials, including the President of the Republic, received her and expressed their willingness to help her with treatment.[/size]
[size=45]The investigative judge specialized in her case also issued a statement confirming that the two suspects were arrested and that they were being investigated.[/size]
[size=45]Aliwi believes that "Maryam's case, had it not been for media pressure, would have taken more than two years to look into it."[/size]
[size=45]In Kirkuk, the “Al-Amal” organization was a lifeline for Lina (a fictitious name) after she suffered abuse from a husband she was forced to marry when she was only 13 years old.[/size]
[size=45]"I was 25 years old when I said enough is enough," she told AFP by phone. My husband beat me in an indescribable way. Nobody blamed him. Then he and my father sent me to a psychiatrist to say I had a psychotic disorder for fear of exposing him. The doctor noticed the effects of the beating on my body and connected me to the association.”[/size]
[size=45]"I had more confidence in the association than in the police," says the 29-year-old. She adds, "The day I took my divorce papers and left the court, I was like getting out of a prison."[/size]
[size=45]Now she aspires to complete her studies in psychology, and is active in the same association that saved her.[/size]
[size=45]Her job is to visit homes and give lectures to women about their rights. Thus, she monitors possible cases of domestic violence and, together with social researchers, seeks to help women.[/size]
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