Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Hello, and welcome to woman off of the middle East podcast. This podcast relates to the realities of Arab women and their rich and diverse experiences. It's aims to present the multiplicity of foreman's voices and its wishes to break cultural stereotypes about women of the middle East, as well as educate and empower the younger generation of middle Eastern woman who were stripped off their historical reference. And weren't necessarily raised to believe in their agency and power to create their own destiny. I'm an <inaudible>, I'm a feminist scholar and educator. I'm also the author of Arab woman and Arab news, all stereotypes. And you meet you. I created this podcast to be an extension and an update of the book and its main topic.
Speaker 0 00:00:54 Hello.
Speaker 1 00:00:55 I've been publishing an episode every two weeks and I have to admit it's not an easy thing to do, especially while I'm still doing other things, including my full time job. But I have to admit also that I love recording these episodes. I'm loving the feedback I'm getting from you. So please continue writing to me. I record this episode, which is relatively shorter from the last three episodes for one reason, because I'm recording it from quarantine after being tested positive for COVID-19, I'm very, very lucky that the symptoms are considered mild, but even though I didn't have a problem breathing that the other symptoms are no joke. So please, please take care of yourselves. Now, welcome to episode four. Episode four is the second in a series of all Toulmin and conflict zones. And episode three, I talked about Yemen and I'm very happy with the feedback I received on that episode.
Speaker 1 00:01:53 It's resonated with many people. Please keep sending me your comments here. I'll be focusing on Iraq and Iraq key woman. And like in every episode, my premise is how I found the Rocky woman and the Corpus I gathered and analyzed an Arab woman book. And we go from there. The complex picture for men in Iraq reflects the complex realities in February one in Iraq, Iraq facing decades of political upheaval and economic instability due to Wars economic sanctions, U S invasion AISES and corrupt political leadership. Iraqi woman held a high reputation during Saddam's long rule. We've always heard about their education, the freedom they enjoyed and the prosperity they lived in. Of course, that is not to say that all Iraqi women were free and educated, but the rocket constitution back then has institutionalized women's rights. The economic sanctions imposed by the UN that took place after Iraq, his invasion of Kuwait in 1991 until two and three took it's tooled on Rocky people.
Speaker 1 00:03:03 The common stories that came out of Iraq is the brain drain issue. Where many of Iraq cause intelligentsia unprofessionals have migrated to Europe, Americas and Australia, Meraki woman also belong to the minorities like the Kurdish, uh, that suffered the most under Saddam's rule home. He committed the genocides against them. Iraq's history of Wars and conflicts kept on escalating and took a turn to the worst with the fall of Baghdad in 2003 and better known as the occupation of Iraq. The country fell into chaos and conflict between the Shia and Sunni and surgeons, which turned the whole country into war zone and Arab woman. Examples from my doc being a hot war zone during the 2005 and six comes up constantly and contributes towards 20% of the articles we coded a brief describes war tornado up in April, 2006, for example, for Michelle called soft whores are not kind to men, but they have ways of punishing woman, even more.
Speaker 1 00:04:14 They restrict their physical lividity keeping girls from schools and women from their workplace security issues, make the streets so unsafe for a woman and making them harder to employ unless they're willing to transport bombs underneath their bias fathers kept their daughters from going to school, fathers and husbands also in a way of protection kept their wives, daughters, and sisters from going out to work. Another brief from May, 2006 and Al-Hayat describes in great terms, what it meant for an Iraq student to live in a war zone through the spring final examination period, just before the final exam, where to begin the head in charge of administrating the examination of four, but at that schools was killed. Parents had already been paying for security guards to escort their girls safely to and from school. The chaos of the final examination period and the increased threats of violence meant the cost of security for girls mobility was skyrocketing religious insurgents in a war zone who want to prove they have control of the streets, makes tapping out to the movement of girls and women, especially those who failed to wear hijab.
Speaker 1 00:05:32 Their highest priority. One girl said regretfully. My school received flyers that threatened teammates, students were not failed with death. If they go out to the examination, girls are prime targets for kidnapping and ream said, sadly, my mama would accompany me for fear of kidnapping and kidnapping operations that's and exasperated green lemons. Is there any hope for me to go back to school who is responsible for all the years of studying? I voiced it and hired a brief of October, 2006 updates, the security situation by the duds. And by that school's at the start of the next school year. Increasing number of parents insist on keeping their children at home more than 4,000 university students have requested transfers to universities outside of adopt a female student identified as I be close to finishing her master's degree, had to abandon her studies. After her brother was killed by a militant group.
Speaker 1 00:06:42 The student identified as Sarah complains that the chaos of war gives any religious islet, a perfect excuse to bully her and her friends, a junior student and philosophy Sarah and wonder is how female students can continue their studies and it's threats that they must wear this Slavic headscarf and stay away from all sorts of makeup. Sarah has personally witnessed female students being beaten up for not wearing the headscarf. She didn't want this to happen to her. So she has decided to leave the school for a year. Now, fast forward, we know that things were not sold and Baghdad as well as other parts of her rock became unfriendly towards women and higher to brief of August, 2006 from Iraq reports that <inaudible> paid minister for women's affairs. Fatten had demanded that their Rocky sites be allowed to participate. And the ongoing investigations into the crimes committed by American soldiers against Hiroki citizens. According to the American should not be allowed to prosecute their own soldiers because they would use soldiers stress as an excuse. I Rockies should be part of the persecution team so that the American would not be able to extend leniency to criminal soldiers or avert their eyes from the magnitude of the wrongdoing committed by American soldiers.
Speaker 0 00:08:19 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:08:30 The complexity of hierarchy situation is also due to its population. Formation made up of several ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians, Kurds Turkmens Syrians and Izzy. These 96% of the population are Muslims. 60% of which are SHEEO the of oppression of women can be seen when you consider the multiple layers of their identities, whether it has to do with sectarianism education class or a political aggregation that okay, women are subject to gender based violence, expectation displacement on other forms of oppression and Arab woman. We reported on a brief from a shackle also from August, 2005, and which an Iraq Kurdish feminists called Hausa. And Mahmud openly expressed her fear that the strengthening of Islamic law in Iraq would create a disaster to women and society as a whole. She cautioned, we don't want to go hundreds of years back to the middle ages where religion dominated over society.
Speaker 1 00:09:38 And it will be a period where women are second class citizens. She complained that the religious sects and head off were perpetrating violence against women. Every day. She accused various of these sects of exploiting the American occupation as a pretext for forcing conservative religious views down women's throats. And she charged it, the Rocky police and the occupation forces with showing not the slightest interest in solving the problem while you as completed its withdrawal from Iraq in December, 2011, a human rights violation continued as well as repression of rights and freedoms, especially for women. According to the United nations development program in Iraq, one in 10 households are headed by women and around 80% of the population are widows
Speaker 0 00:10:26 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:10:38 Sectarianism and Iraq lingered beyond politics, and try to impose new orders, especially on women. For example, the calling for amendments to the personal status code that gave more authority to different religious authorities, for example, and according to the Jeffery sect, which is she has sect restrictions would be put on women's rights to inherit rights for after divorce to also makes it easier for men to marry multiple wives and allows families to marry off their daughters. From the age of nine. This proposal was met with widespread opposition by women associations in Iraq and demonstrations by Rocky woman, which led to the parliament rejecting offer this proposal. And February, 2009 therapy minister of women's affairs resigned in protest. The lack of support to the growing number of widows, unemployed women, oppressed and detained woman. After years of sectarian warfare in 2015, the ministry was abolished the break down of the state and lack of security gives chance to ISIS to emerge then came AISES who captured the Mosul and other territories in all in 2014, the plague of minorities intensified witnessing displacement of members of Christian <inaudible> and others that sure ISIS has committed atrocities against non-Muslims and chia, including killing and kidnapping of women and girls and forcing them to change their religion.
Speaker 1 00:12:17 One of the crimes that dies is committed that shocked the world, the whole world, but especially the Muslim world is the sexual slavery, which they used because they used Islamic scripture wrongfully to justify it. This would remain as one of the most horrendous histories of filings against women as the history of institutionalized rape, the way the woman were kidnapped and sold and the slavery market conjures up of the slave trade of the blacks. One of the shameful chapters of our history East and West, however, this faith trade used technology and mobile phones as they used to exchange pictures of women and girls throw more wives and finalize the deals through the online messaging woman who escaped ISIS were given the chance to relate the horrific experiences. They went through contributing to supporting women and girls who survived sexual violence like them. We cannot mention here <inaudible> and Iraq, P E Z D a human rights activist who got awarded Nobel peace prize in 2018. Nadia Morocco was enslaved by ISIS and 2014 and escaped captivity after three months and reached a refugee camp. She ended up in Germany where she lives now choose her story to bring attention to sexual violence against women and help victims of abuse and human trafficking
Speaker 0 00:13:53 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:14:07 Was described as a fragile state in 2018. And the gender profile between December, 2017 and June, 2018, that was done by the UN or commissioned by the UN woman and Oxfam Iraq. Franked 121st out of 188 countries in the UN human development index in 2017 and ranked 123 on the UN gender index inequality index. Iraq holds one of the lowest GII ranking in demeanor region in comparison to Saudi Arabia, which is ranked 50 online ranked 54 Lebanon rank to 83 Algeria ranked 95 and Avon ranked 118. However, it's better positioned than Syria, Afghanistan,
Speaker 2 00:15:06 And human.
Speaker 1 00:15:19 The next segment, and this episode gives the chance for it. Okay. Women's voices to reach you. We will listen first from <inaudible> a woman's rights advocate and activist who fights the everyday fight for all the woman in Iraq. <inaudible> <inaudible>,
Speaker 2 00:15:43 I'm in design Miami from Iraq. I'm a member of the Iraqi women's league and a member of the Iraqi coalition for rocks national action plan for the implementation of the S CR 13, 25 women, peace and security. This pipe being subject to all forms of violence, discrimination, and equity and violations, Iraqi women and girls have always taken stance against these abuses violations, absence of lows, that the term violence, weak legal procedures and poor enforcement of the laws, as well as the turbo violations against Iraqi women, whether at home, in the form of domestic violence or in the community such as harassment, even at the workplace. This is in addition to the violence committed against them by armed groups and ISIS, which lift to the captivity of some Iraqi woman, leaving them humiliated and vulnerable to trafficking and rape. Nevertheless, Iraqi a woman's voice remained a voice of peace, wisdom and reason your IQ, women and girls always look for enjoying a better life where safety and stability reveal a life free from violations.
Speaker 2 00:17:01 We have always as part for living in the country where the language of security and peace dominates, not the language of weapons, violence, shootings, murders, and assassinations, Iraqi women are determined and working hard to create a better future for Iraq, through programs of peace and peaceful coexistence in all of your racks, provinces, cities, and villages, they are helping each other for the sake of empowerment and economy building. In order to overcome all the ordeals they have been going through the, you want to leave a remarkable imprint in securing and protecting their country. This is what was embodied in the first national action plan for the, of the UNSC CR 1325 women peace and security, which was written by women and presented to the government to be a plan or a roadmap to consolidate the value of peaceful coexistence and secure, sustainable peace in Iraq, in partnership with women and civil society organizations, it's an underbite to create a safe and stable country that guarantees a decent life and social justice for both men and women, without discrimination, Iraqi women have been doing their best in all of the early mentioned, despite the obstacles and challenges they face at work, Iraqi women and girls indeed have been more socially effective, stronger, and able to create peace, protect their country and security safety from six year in disputes and terrorist groups.
Speaker 3 00:18:52 Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:19:07 No, we would hear short force clips that were sent to me by five Iraqi women who were presented diversity spectrum of Rocky woman, but all want peace and prosperity for their country. And <inaudible> I a Z D journalists from Iraq, my dream is to live a safe life. And my goal is to always be at the leading end, despite failure, lens, terrorism and difficulties. I very much hope that we will live a better life in a safe country, through the campaigns and demands that we firmly make. Also, I'm always keen to be part of a creating a better future for my country. <inaudible> what happened.
Speaker 3 00:19:55 <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:19:58 <inaudible> despite violence, terrorism, and difficulties. I have a dream and a goal in life. And my great hope is that we will live a better life free from discrimination and abuse in a peaceful country that embraces everyone. I'm also keen to be part of creating a better future for my country
Speaker 3 00:20:20 In short, a long <inaudible>.
Speaker 2 00:20:24 Yeah. Yeah. My name is Hannah. She read it. My dream is to complete my studies and finish college, despite violence, terrorism, and difficulties. I have a goal to achieve a life, and I really hope that we will live a better life free from discrimination and abuse in a peaceful country that embraces everyone. I'm also keen be part of the creating a better future for my country. <inaudible> I'm Nebraska zoo Beatty, Iraqi Muslim. My goal is to deliver my message in media humanly and with all sincerity, despite all the prosecutions that women face and the restrictions they are subject to in any field, I insist on always being better and stronger to confront anyone who tries to underestimate my goals and ambitions in life. I mean, <inaudible> put a DME now. I am <inaudible>. I call journalists from Iraq. My dream is for safety and security to be decent. And in my country, my goal is to spread love and peace around the world. Despite violence, terrorism, and difficulties. I very much hope that we will live a better life free from discrimination and abuse in a peaceful country that embraces everyone. And I'm keen to be part of creating a better future for my country. <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:22:00 literally, I end this episode with a wish that you all stay safe and well take care,
Speaker 0 00:22:13 Right? To me.
