In the Words of Suaad Allami: The Plight of Iraqi Women Refugees

An award-winning Iraqi lawyer and activist for women's rights from Sadr City in Baghdad, Suaad Allami founded the NGO “Women for Progress” in 2007. It manages a legal clinic and “one-stop shop” for legislative advocacy, domestic violence counselling, vocational training and other services. She was invited to speak at this year's Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security on 28 October, which focuses on displaced women as leaders and survivors. She gives us a glimpse at how thousands of Iraqi women and girls are coping...

This is not the first time Suaad Allami, an Iraqi lawyer and women's activist, has witnessed the upheaval of her society by terrorist violence. But she says the takeover of the northern city of Mosul by ISIS this June, “was a shock to all of us” — particularly women and girls. The ensuing wave of violence has displaced approximately 1.8 million people internally, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Refugee and internally displaced women and girls who are fleeing the conflict in Iraq face heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence in the cramped and unsafe confines of refugee camps, where families share little but “a mattress, some blankets, a water container and one restroom for the whole camp,” says Ms. Allami.The close quarters of the camps has put a strain on daily life, particularly given Iraq's conservative society, where women and girls do not normally mix with men and boys of other families.

Young girls' education has been disrupted as families take shelter in their former schools, and women have been impacted by the loss of economic opportunities, unable to go back to their jobs or find others while they are displaced.In the absence of fathers and brothers who have left their families to fight ISIS, many women have taken on the responsibilities of their husbands and the care of other family members, says Ms. Allami.
“If the woman is a victim of gender-based violence or trafficking, that's because of her economic conditions that force her to accept or to live with this abuse,” says Ms. Allami.She says she's also concerned about the possibility of early marriage among girls, which could be used to alleviate economic hardship. This is why economic empowerment initiatives are crucial for women, she says.Painting a picture which echoes across conflict zones, Ms. Allami speaks of the horrific abductions of displaced Yazidi women and girls in particular, who are being forced by ISIS militants to convert to Islam, or be killed.“They [ISIS militants] are using them as a tool against the men who are fighting them. They sell them from group, to other group, to other group. And each time, they rape them,” she says.

While displaced women are most concerned about meeting their immediate needs – food, water and shelter – Ms. Allami says social services are needed to address their long-term recovery. For Yazidi women who have escaped back to their families, for example, there are no services to help them deal with the stigma of sexual violence, she says.While a number of UN agencies, international organizations and local NGOs are on the ground working to alleviate the situation, Ms. Allami says Iraq has no crisis management system “to meet the needs immediately of the IDPs or refugees,” especially given the influx of refugees from Syria.

Ms. Allami hopes her presence at the Security Council's Open Debate on women, peace and security will demonstrate that Iraqis need more than military solutions.Iraq's national security system and efforts to address extremism must acknowledge preexisting conditions faced by women and include them in the peacebuilding process, she stresses in her address.“Women must be supported in their efforts to connect formal and informal justice systems,” she says, calling on the Security Council and Member States to recommit to the full implementation of the women, peace and security agenda. “All human beings have the right to be safe and live a life of dignity.”