Saturday, November 22, 2003
Al Jazeera--Part of the Problem
Women are treated like pack animals in Iraq. Particularly in the rural, farming areas as you get away from Baghdad--where women squat or kneel and work in the fields fully veiled, even in the heat of the summer, with temperatures soaring to 125 degrees and higher.
At the end of the day, it's typical for me to see women doubled over under the weight of huge sacks of produce, pulled or cut from the earth by hand. Many times the sacks look bigger than they are. The wealthier ones are fortunate to have a donkey.
I almost never see a man working in the fields alongside them. I do often see them walking ahead of or behind these women, though. I've never seen a man carry anything in the presence of a woman.
But tragically for Iraq's women, the unequal distribution of labor is the least of their worries. Their more immediate concern is that the wholesale release of real criminals from Iraq's prisons, plus the collapse of what Iraqi policing there was in the wake of the fall of Saddam, resulted in an explosion of kidnapping, extortion, slave trafficking, and rape.
(You can find a useful discussion of the problem, and recommended short-term solutions for it from Human Rights Watch here.)
Tragic as it is, it should not be a surprise. This is a tribal culture, deeply rooted in its ancient traditions, which in many areas still sanction the honor killings of women who suffer rape.
But it ain't just a problem among the backward tribal areas; the callous and cavalier attitude towards even the basic, fundamental human rights of women also plagues the educated class.
Here's a telling example: a headline from Al Jazeera's English Language site: Filipinas 'raped' in Kuwait
What's the deal with the scare quotes around the word 'rape,' Al Jazeera?
What part of 'wrong' don't you understand?
At the end of the day, it's typical for me to see women doubled over under the weight of huge sacks of produce, pulled or cut from the earth by hand. Many times the sacks look bigger than they are. The wealthier ones are fortunate to have a donkey.
I almost never see a man working in the fields alongside them. I do often see them walking ahead of or behind these women, though. I've never seen a man carry anything in the presence of a woman.
But tragically for Iraq's women, the unequal distribution of labor is the least of their worries. Their more immediate concern is that the wholesale release of real criminals from Iraq's prisons, plus the collapse of what Iraqi policing there was in the wake of the fall of Saddam, resulted in an explosion of kidnapping, extortion, slave trafficking, and rape.
(You can find a useful discussion of the problem, and recommended short-term solutions for it from Human Rights Watch here.)
Tragic as it is, it should not be a surprise. This is a tribal culture, deeply rooted in its ancient traditions, which in many areas still sanction the honor killings of women who suffer rape.
But it ain't just a problem among the backward tribal areas; the callous and cavalier attitude towards even the basic, fundamental human rights of women also plagues the educated class.
Here's a telling example: a headline from Al Jazeera's English Language site: Filipinas 'raped' in Kuwait
What's the deal with the scare quotes around the word 'rape,' Al Jazeera?
What part of 'wrong' don't you understand?
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