First Victims of Freedom

For someone who faces death threats, swaps apartments regularly and hides the location of her organization from authorities, Yanar Mohammed, one of Iraq’s leading feminists, hasn’t lost her sense of humor. Even during a recent conversation about the demise of women’s rights and safety in post-war Iraq, her wry perspective asserted itself in small ways, revealing her humanity and suggesting a certain defiance. She laughed at her English on the rare occasions that it proved faulty, and poked fun at Islamist attire as worn by women in Baghdad’s fundamentalist neighborhoods, likening the all-black, body-concealing uniform to radioactive protective gear.

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In 2003, Mohammed founded the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), which shelters Iraqi women targeted in honor killings and sectarian violence (both on the rise since the war and occupation). It also monitors women in jail and assists formerly detained women, such as prostitutes. And, most visibly, OWFI speaks out loudly and insistently for women’s legal rights and secular law in opposition to Iraq’s growing Islamism. Her demands shed light on the precarious position of women under radical Islamism but, perhaps more to the question at hand, they confirm the disastrous consequences of the Iraq war and the political repercussions of occupation, which, according to Mohammed, has unleashed militant fundamentalism that is proving impossible to subdue.

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Read the interview with Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed.

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For a good analysis about the demise of women’s rights and safety in post-war Iraq see here.