This is not just in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan. In November 2001 Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, said: "The rights of women in Afghanistan will not be negotiable." But the women of Afghanistan have felt with their whole bodies the dishonesty of such statements from US and British leaders - we know that they have already negotiated away women's rights in Afghanistan by imposing the most treacherous warlords on the people. Their pretty speeches are made out of political expediency rather than genuine concern.
From 2001 to 2007, the violence against women in both Afghanistan AND Iraq has risen, not subsided. A very telling documentary, Behind the Veil by Saira Shah ex...

This is not just in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan. In November 2001 Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, said: "The rights of women in Afghanistan will not be negotiable." But the women of Afghanistan have felt with their whole bodies the dishonesty of such statements from US and British leaders - we know that they have already negotiated away women's rights in Afghanistan by imposing the most treacherous warlords on the people. Their pretty speeches are made out of political expediency rather than genuine concern.
From 2001 to 2007, the violence against women in both Afghanistan AND Iraq has risen, not subsided. A very telling documentary, Behind the Veil by Saira Shah explored the atrocities, and a follow up documentary was made this past year, it has not gotten better. Violent oppression of women is spreading across Iraq, a weapon of mass mental and physical destruction. And yet there is silence from world leaders, religious leaders, politicians and the media.
Women in Iraq were betrayed by the country's new constitution that guaranteed them a 25 per cent share of membership of the Council of Representatives. That guarantee has turned instead into a fig leaf hiding what women activists now call a 'human rights catastrophe for Iraqi women'. Iraq's women live in terror of speaking their opinions; of going out to work; or defying the strict new prohibitions on dress and behaviour applied across Iraq by Islamist militants, both Sunni and Shia. They live in fear of their husbands, too, as women's rights have been undermined by the country's postwar constitution that has taken power from the family courts and given it to clerics.
Sorry to go on and on, I will stop here, this is a subject I have followed and feel very strongly about. Thank you for the clip!