Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

Human rights activism is a risky business in the Middle East in general but it is more so in Iraq where female activists have been targeted, wrote Oumayma Omar on 6 January 2019, based in Baghdad for the Arab Weekly. A series of killings in 2018 sparked fears of a coordinated campaign to silence successful and outspoken women in Iraq. In August and September 2018, four prominent women were assassinated, including activist Soad al-Ali in Basra and Tara Fares in Baghdad. They had campaigned for women’s freedoms and rights in a conservative, tribal society.

“The new political situation in Iraq has been detrimental on all Iraqis, especially women,” said Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) from self-exile in Canada.. “After the US-led invasion (2003), a new political system was created leading to a most sectarian, tribal and religious society where women’s lives don’t have much weight.” [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/10/01/iraqi-human-rights-defender-yanar-mohammed-laureate-of-2016-rafto-prize/]

Discriminatory practices against women have become a fait accompli and the norm in Iraqi families in rural areas as well as big cities, including Baghdad, after the rise to power of Islamist parties. “They introduced extremist religious ideas based on hatred for women and viewing them as sexual and reproductive tools,” added the human rights defender…Despite intimidations and accusations of promoting secularism and encouraging women to go against their families, OWFI, which provides shelters for women who survive domestic violence, has been expanding since it was established in 2003.

Activist Hana Addour, president of Al-Amal organisation, said entrenched tribal values are still largely applied although Iraq has endorsed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stipulates freedoms of expression, movement, opinion and the right to choose a partner without force or intimidation……She refuted as “baseless” accusations that activists were provoking women against social traditions. “We did not import our ideas and we do not contest customs or religious texts,” Addour said. “We only seek to implement the constitution by rejecting forced and early marriages and many other matters that we cannot accept under any pretext.”