BySCEME
On The Underground Railroad for Iraqi Women
In February of this year, Al Jazeera reported on the rise of domestic violence against women in Iraq. Nine years after the U.S. – led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, the United Nations reports up to one in five women suffers from domestic abuse and there has been difficulty in opening shelters outside of the Kurdistan area in Iraq, due to the influence of Islamist politics that has crept in post-invasion.
The Underground Railroad for Iraqi Women is a joint effort by MADRE and the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI); together they founded the first shelters in the non-Kurdish part of Iraq. The shelters are vital and in fact a lifeline to many women and girls who are escaping violence and threats against them. In addition to the immediate protection from violence, there is also a human rights training program, set up to empower women with the knowledge and the skills to demand their rights as equal and active citizens of society. It is the hope that through this network of women helping women, a positive force against the continuing repression and state sanctioned violence against women can be stopped.
Iraqi women had no doubt suffered greatly under Saddam Hussein’s brutal rule, wars, and years of economic sanctions. The deteriorating situation is now exacerbated by the lack of security and institutionalized violence, where the law protects the abusers, rather than the victims.
BySCEME
Amina- 16 – decides to take her own life to escape her marriage to her rapist
A young Moroccan girl recently took her own life to escape her forced marriage to a man who had previously raped her. The 16 years old girl was forced to marry her rapist by a tribunal decision that, with the approval of both families (although the father initially opposed the marriage), presented it as the sole respectable option.The girl, who was living in Larache, near Tangiers, could not accept her rapist as her husband – and possibly the future father of her children. She therefore decided to take rat poison and put an end to the miserable future that had been imposed on her.
This awful event is another testimony of what happens in the majority of Arab countries, where domestic violence and sexual abuse are still considered huge taboos, impossible to break. Instead of explicitly and publicly criminalising these acts, governments and tribunals are often choosing the easiest option: hiding behind the screen of cultural or religious traditions.
As a matter of fact, the article 475 of the Moroccan penal code not only clearly conceals rape as a form of crime, but also gives the offender the possibility to avoid imprisonment if he agrees to marry the victim.
Very few countries across the MENA region have laws on family violence, which shows that womens’ rights have still got a long battle to fight. Indeed, although different articles of the penal code have been created to protect family values and morality, they do not take basic human rights into consideration. Women should be entitled to refuse a marriage to a person that took them with force.
We, at SCEME, understand that changing these laws and traditions will not be easy; however we are determined to tell the world that domestic and sexual violence must be criminalised. SCEME has recently started the “Azwajuna (Our husbands) campaign, which aims to emphasise that women have a Right to: A Private Life; to live Free from Violence and that the integrity of their Bodies should be Respected.
BySCEME
“He Loves You, He Beats You”
Turkey’s weak family violence protection system leaves women unprotected against domestic abuse. Life-saving protections, including court-issued protection orders and emergency shelters, are not available for many abuse victims because of implementation failures.
There are brutal violence against women by husbands, partners, and family members and the survivors’ struggle to seek protection. Turkey has strong protection laws, setting out requirements for shelters for abused women and protection orders. However, gaps in the law and implementation failures by police, prosecutors, and judges make the protection system dangerous.
According to a 2009 survey conducted by a Turkish university, 42 % of women over age 15 in Turkey and 47 % of rural women have experienced physical violence.
The law excludes certain groups of women altogether, such as divorced and unmarried women. Police, prosecutors, and judges in many cases neglect their duties. Many women said that police officers mocked them and sent them home to their abusers, rather than helping them get protection orders, and that prosecutors and judges were slow to act on protection order requests or demanded evidence not required by the law.
The extreme brutality that family members inflict on women is bad enough, but it is even worse to know that a woman who asks for protection might be insulted and sent right back to her abuser.
Turkey should close the gaps in its family protection law by providing that protection orders may be issued to unmarried and divorced women, including women in unregistered religious marriages.
BySCEME
“Azwajuna”
A Call to Action:
Join our Efforts to Criminalise Family Violence
People wonder why women stay in abusive relationships. A rude comment here, a push there, can eat away a woman’s self-confidence, especially if there are no legal protections available to her.
Domestic violence is a huge problem all across the Arab world. It is also a huge taboo and accurate statistics are not available. Only a few countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, such as Jordan and Israel, have laws on family violence.
In Lebanon, for example, Marital Law does not provide any protection to women.
- “He raped you? Well, marry him!” This slogan is a reality in Lebanon, where the law says that an abuser can be innocent if he marries the victim!
- At least 3/4 of Lebanese women experience domestic abuse.
- Domestic violence is not part of the Lebanese Penal code and Marital Rape is legalised.
- The judiciary consider domestic violence natural phenomena within families.
- The religious courts are not mandated to protect women from violence.
- The Lebanese are split over a draft law on Violence against Women (VAW). The bill criminalises family violence, including rape within marriage. The bill creates family violence units to work with police, and allows women and children to seek restraining order.
Dar al-Fatwa in Lebanon opposes the draft law and describes it as a “Western idea” that would “undermine the position of the man in his family”. But why is it taboo to seek protection against violence?
We at SCEME (www.sce-me.org ) emphasise that women have a Right to: A Private Life; to live Free from Violence and that the integrity of their Bodies should be Respected.
