[sacw] IRAQI WOMEN HURT MOST BY SANCTIONS

[aiindex@mnet.fr]

Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998
FYI
Harsh Kapoor

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IRAQI WOMEN HURT MOST BY SANCTIONS

Under the UN sanctions, casualties include not only Iraq's self-
sufficiency and its modern, secular society, with its advanced
medical and educational systems, but also the progressive lives
of eight million Iraqi women, who find themselves forced into
social contracts which they thought ended a century ago.

By Barbara Nimri Aziz

In the long struggle between Iraq and the US, Iraqi women have
been the most harmed of that nation's beleaguered masses. Like
men, of course, they've lost opportunities and seen their living
standard plummet. But they've also been forced into social con-
tracts which they thought ended a century ago.

Seven years of sanctions have dessicated more than bombs could.
The casualties include not only Iraq's modern, secular society,
with its advanced medical and educational systems, self-suffi-
ciency, university research, and child vaccination programmes,
but also the progressive lives of eight million Iraqi women.
Before 1 9 9 0, Iraq had an exemplary policy of educating women
and opening the professions to them. Before the Gulf War, women
were found in all sectors of life. But in the years since then,
those gains have been reversed.

It's well-known that women everywhere endure a double victimisa-
tion during war. We saw it in Bosnia and Rwanda, in the hardships
of Nicaraguan mothers, and the targeting of women in Algeria. But
modern warfare also has its peculiarities. For example, civilian
casualties in 20th-century wars are far higher than `combat'
casualties. Women and children, left undefended, are subjected to
rape and other brutalities. With their men away fighting, they're
often obliged to flee, never to reunite with their families.
In exile, they must accept any kind of work to support other
survivors, often subjected again to exploitation.

As far as we know, Iraqi women were not raped - not directly. But
as a result of war conditions ignited by the sanctions, they've
lost many of the rights they had - even under Saddam Hussein.
And let us be clear. The UN sanctions, now in their eighth year,
are a terrible form of war. The economic embargo on Iraq, policed
by the US, is proving to be the most punitive and strictly en-
forced in human history. Well over a million civilians - mostly
children - have perished, all of them needless deaths created by
a lack of food and medicine. Hundreds of thousands of children
are stunted or retarded due to disease and malnutrition, while
war-related pollution and contamination has pushed up cancer
rates. At least four million Iraqis have fled the country, seek-
ing refuge elsewhere.

An unreported effect of the sanctions - and another reason to
consider them a weapon of war - is the social disruption they've
created. Over the past seven years, Iraq has experienced a com-
plete economic breakdown and class upheaval. Its once substan-

tial, educated, and comfortable middle class is devastated and in
flight. The urban cultural and intellectual life of the cities is
gone. Meanwhile, a new, very wealthy small class of merchants and
farmers who profited from the shortages is moving into Iraq's
urban areas. And, as more of the impoverished middle class join
them, the once minuscule poor class has swelled to include most
of the population.

As a result, there are many more poor and dependent women in
Iraq. In the recent past, girls were well educated and entered
the work force, taking prominent roles in professions and public
life. But recently, many older women have left their salaried
jobs. They claim they can't clothe themselves properly. But they
may also be making room for young men just out of college.

Certainly, fewer jobs are available to women. After the war, when
foreign businessmen and new war-rich Iraqis provided a market for
prostitution, some desperate families found themselves offering
their daughters in order to buy food for the other children. Most
families refused this option, but their daughters still faced
special hardships as women. With the collapsed economy, unemploy-
ment rose. To secure work, men travelled to other parts of the
country or emigrated in search of work. Employers also began to
give priority to young men for the few available places. Even so,
inflation (a 6000% increase since 1990) is so high and salaries
so low that families haven't been able to manage.

To help their parents, young men delay marriage. And any boy with
dreams of emigrating in search of a new life (according to re-
ports, 200,000 single men have already left for New Zealand)
isn't likely to marry before leaving. So, Iraq's male-female
ratio is now unbalanced, and young women find themselves without
a choice of partners. But women have fewer chances to emigrate,
since their families don't want them to travel abroad alone. And
remaining at home is no solution.

Within Arab society, women are under immense pressure to marry,
especially if they have no profession. Meanwhile, sexual contact
outside marriage is hardly possible. The chronic dilemma has
intensified, increasing already overwhelming burdens.

Societies have different ways of absorbing strain. Sometimes the
adjustment is positive, sometimes not. In Iraq's case, coping
with the gender imbalance created by the sanctions has led some
families to adopt polygamy as a solution for their daughters'
limited marriage prospects. To secure their daughters a future as
mothers and some kind of economic security, parents are offering
their daughters as second, junior wives. The marriages are legal.
Arranged by the family, they generally involve an older man
already supporting a wife and children. The first wife objects
and protests, but many men welcome such arrangements.

Though sanctioned in Iraqi religious law, for many decades polyg-
amy wasn't practised in most parts of the country. In fact,
multiple wives were discouraged by both the state and educated

society. Today, however, due to social upheaval, a woman has less
leverage to refuse a second wife. And parents who never would
have allowed it in their youth see polygamy as a solution. It's a
desperate strategy to help their families cope with the intoler-
able conditions all Iraqis face. - Third World Network Features

-- ends --

About the writer: Barbara Nimri Aziz, a New York-based journalist
and anthropologist, has followed developments in Iraq since
before the Gulf War. She is also a producer and news reporter
with Pacifica Radio.

The above article first appeared in Toward Freedom (March/April
1998, 'Back to the Margins').

When reproducing this feature, please credit Third World Network
Features and (if applicable) the cooperating magazine or agency
involved in the article, and give the byline. Please send us
cuttings.

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