Houzan Mahmoud boycotted the Iraqi elections. Why? Because, as she says, "freedom" has become a cruel joke. Saddam's regime was brutal, but it was secular, and women in Iraq enjoyed a degree of freedom that their sisters in other Arab countries are denied. That has changed since the invasion. She writes:
The new norm -- enforced at the barrel of a gun by Islamic extremists -- is to see women as the repository of honor and shame, not only on behalf of family and tribe but the nation. Ken Bigley's abductors perversely wanted to redeem the "honor" of Iraq through obtaining the release of female prisoners. Since when did Islamic groups -- the very people doing the hostage taking, torturing and killing -- start caring about the rights of Iraqi women?
Take the case of Anaheed. She was suspended to a tree in the New Baghdad area of the capital and then first shot by her father (a solicitor no less) and then by each member of her tribe. She was then was cut into pieces.
This to clear the shame on the tribe's honor for having wanted to marry a man she was in love with. This happened in late 2003, months after the "liberation."
Or consider the story of
Fakhriyah
Fakhriyah is around 20-years-old, but she doesn't know for sure. In fact, she can no longer recall her father's name, as she is now a drug addict.
"I was living in an orphanage and was kidnapped the day Baghdad fell," said Fakhriyah. She described how an American tank was stationed near the orphanage due to its proximity to an airport, and how the US troops allowed the orphanage to be looted.
"The kidnappers took turns raping me, and I don't remember how long they kept me until they threw me out on the street," she said, dazed and high on glue, trying to blot out her miserable existence. She uses any drug she can get her hands on, "so I don't feel what's going on around me or who is raping me again."
As horrific as the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein was, Iraqis now long for the security it provided. Rape was uncommon then; now, kidnapping and rape are everyday occurrences.
I am filled with such rage. The idea that Islamic extremists would step into the breach created by the chaos of a poorly planned invasion, an incompetent administration, a Neocon wet dream of liberators being greeted with roses--that idea was so obvious to anyone who thought about this. What did we expect would happen? What happened when the Shah of Iran fell? Yes, he was a bastard. But Iranian women were doctors and lawyers under the Shah. Now they're under the veil. How long before we see a Taliban-type government instituted in Iraq? Months?
And our president, who claims to love freedom and human rights, doesn't give a rat's ass about women. So I'm not expecting that, even if we suddenly uncover evidence that the newly elected government is instituting the harshest of laws against women, this administration will say a damn word. Because they're just women's bodies, and really? We don't count. We just don't count.
So, what to do? Well, Eve Ensler, who has become my heroine, has an organization that is trying to create an alternative for women in Iraq. And, of course, there is the creation of art.
What must we do? I'm going to write a letter to various members of the Senate, remind them that we didn't just "liberate" Iraqi men.
Something else that I think needs to be said. Our government has set out to humiliate Iraqi men. We have tortured them in prison, humiliated them sexually, mocked their religion. The chain of power is obvious. When you're humiliated by someone who has more power than you, you turn around and humiliate the person lower than you in the power scale. Women have become the repository of family honour because that honour has been violated by us. We are responsible for what is happening to the women of Iraq.
