Since September 11, Dallas Congresswoman Johnson has pursued the motto “no women, no peace,” by introducing two resolutions to bring more women into the peacemaking arena and forming an organization to do the same.
Iraqi women are forming organizations to influence the formation of a new government. While many are lobbying for a secular government, others hope for an Islamic state.
The State Department says the Iraq war was fought in part to improve the lot of women. Yet, experts on the status of women in Iraq are concerned that the relative freedom women enjoyed will be lost as conservatives gain power in the new government.
The members of the powerful World Economic Forum represent a wide diversity of regions and economies but tend to be male. As the forum opens its annual meeting today, it’s seeking to increase the participation of women.
In Washington and Albany, women opposed to a U.S. war on Iraq have embarked on vigils, fasts and a 40-day hunger strike to draw attention to their views, which they say are being drowned out by “testosterone-poisoned rhetoric.”
Sometimes lost in the talk about war on terrorism and war on Iraq is this administration’s other war–on women’s right to control their fertility and reproductive health.
Katrin Michael, who lived through chemical attacks unleashed by Saddam Hussein on Iraqi’s Kurdish population, now advocates for women’s concerns as part of the exiled Iraqi opposition movement.
Iraqi women enjoy many of the rights denied to their sisters in other Arab countries. Yet, they suffer the consequences of U.S. sanctions and will bear the brunt of any invasion or regime change. They must have a voice in the future of their country.
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