The Veil of Freedom

By Zelie Pollon, AlterNet. Posted February 25, 2005.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Two years after the invasion of Iraq and just weeks before the country's first free election, "Amina" began wearing a headscarf for the first time in her life. Her father insisted upon it.

"I don't like this and I don't see the danger. No one ever bothered me before," Amina says, sitting in her office located in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Khadimiya, her long brown hair streaming down her back. At first the 27-year-old professor at the engineering college resisted, arguing that her students will lose respect for her for caving in to the fundamentalists. But her father would not be moved: Amina didn't have a choice; the extremists were far too dangerous to be defied.

She is already making plans to leave the country to pursue a Ph.D. in Europe.

Life wasn't always this dangerous for women like Amina. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was a secular country where women could freely walk the busy streets without a scarf or a male escort, and stay out late at outdoor cafes with their families, sometimes until two or three in the morning. While women suffered as much as any other Iraqi under Saddam's tyranny, Baathist laws were noteworthy for their commitment to gender equality. Unlike their peers in the Arab world, Iraqi women enjoyed equal employment and educational opportunities and equal pay.

But the U.S. invasion in March, 2003, changed everything. With the departure of Saddam, women became a target for both fundamentalist Islamists and U.S. soldiers. According to a new report released by Amnesty International early this week, "Women and girls in Iraq live in fear of violence as the conflict intensifies and insecurity spirals."

The fear of armed groups who terrorize anyone who defies their religious edicts has made many Iraqi women prisoners within their own home. "The lawlessness and increased killings, abductions and rapes that followed the overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussein have restricted women's freedom of movement and their ability to go to school or to work," the human rights organization reports.

Then there is the added threat of abuse posed by U.S. soldiers: "Women have been subjected to sexual threats by members of the U.S.-led forces and some women detained by U.S. forces have been sexually abused, possibly raped."

With the Shiite victory in the January elections, the future for Iraqi women looks no less bleak. Shiites make up 60 percent of Iraq's population and consider Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as their spiritual leader. Their electoral triumph underscored and legitimized the Shiite majority's immense political power, and will ensure a dominant role in crafting the future Iraqi constitution. While many Shiites say they don't support a theocratic state and Sistani has proven to be a moderate leader, women's rights activists like Yanar Mohammed are less optimistic.

"Shiite political groups want to impose Islamic sharia and let it override the civil code that we've had for 30 years. This will turn women not into second class citizens but into third and fourth class citizens," says Mohammed, who heads The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, which opened the first domestic violence shelter for women escaping abuse or "honor killings" from their families.

Zelie Pollon, a freelance writer from Santa Fe, N.M., is in Iraq for the second time. The first time she interviewed more than 100 Iraqi citizens for an independent venture called the Baghdad Project.

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