MIDDLE EAST: The Word on Women -

Today, like every other Friday since February, Iraqi citizens will gather in Tahrir Square – in Baghdad, not Cairo – to protest corruption, poor government, lack of basic services, high unemployment rates and constraints on freedom of expression.

Since the US invasion in 2003 and subsequent occupation, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the conflict, and nearly 4.8 people have been forcefully displaced. Almost 750,000 women in Iraq have been widowed.

Even before the invasion, and as a result of years of economic sanctions and war, Iraqis experienced high rates of violence, displacement, exile, widowhood, unemployment and illiteracy. Today, Iraqi women face violence from all sides: from armies and security forces, sectarian and tribal leaders and from private security contractors unaccountable to international law.

Amidst all of the chaos and conflict, various political factions have targeted women through both physical violence and patriarchal legislation. Gender-specific forms of violence include ‘honour-based' killings, trafficking and harassment of and attacks against women accused of prostitution, women who do not wear veils and women who wear makeup.

Nevertheless, women's rights advocates in Iraq have pushed back, including against discriminatory laws governing marriage, divorce and child custody. They have also been successful in helping limit the constitutional role of Islam, lobbying for gender quotas in political representation and ensuring legislative compliance with CEDAW.

These days, though, Iraqi authorities are responding harshly to any protests, banning street demonstrations and attempting to confine large gatherings to football stadiums.

To date, more than 125 people have died in clashes between security forces and pro-democracy demonstrators, with hundreds more wounded and dozens of others arrested and detained.

As in the demonstrations in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya, women's activism and organizing has played a critical role in the protests in Iraq. Iraqi women human rights defenders have experienced violent and sexualized attacks, intimidation and harassment, preventing them from carrying out their work.

On Friday, June 10th, demonstrators gathered to protest a reneged promise to improve provision of utilities and create jobs. 4 women who are part of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) were attacked, sexual assaulted and beaten by pro-government supporters, who destroyed the women's banners, beat the women with wooden sticks and groped their bodies.

In response, a bus full of OWFI activists and their youth allies returned to Tahrir Square on July 8th with banners reading, “Beating of Tahrir Women Increased our Determination for Change” and “Instead of Fulfilling the Promise of the Hundred Days, They Released Their Thugs on Us.”

Due to “Iraq fatigue,” international media has largely ignored these events. Yet according to Yanar Mohammed, president of the OWFI, media coverage plays an essential role in helping protect women human rights defenders. She says, “if you are an outspoken feminist in Iraq these days and you are demonstrating in Tahrir Square, you have actually no protection. So media [coverage] is the best protection.”

Mohammed adds, “even if the U.S. intervention that happened before – the military intervention – has destroyed our lives, we need a civilian intervention now. We need the American people to support and empower us again so we can take matters into our own hands and hold free elections."

Indeed, broad-based international solidarity with women human rights defenders in Iraq remains important in helping them continue their work. In spite of Iraq fatigue, as female activists occupy center stage elsewhere in the region's democratic revolutions and uprisings, the activists in Iraq's Tahrir Square should be counted – and credited – among them.

Note: To support the work of women human rights defenders in Iraq, sign a petition condemning attacks on OWFI and other activists.