Iraqi Women

[Jeanette X]

Originally Posted by mburbank

What kind of freedoms did they have under Saddam compared to Women in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait?

What about before the Baath party took over Iraq?

And do we know anything yet (probably not) about wether their is religous persecution of women going on now, as is documented in Afghanistan?

Iraqi women have many freedoms. Women of Iraq can drive, hold jobs (which is quite common), can dress anyway they choose, and there is even the equivalent of an Equal Rights Amendment in the Iraqi constitution. Baathists claim (at least in rhetoric) to support equality for women. I do know that abortion and sterilization is illegal in Iraq, although birth control was being encouraged.
These freedoms generally are applied to the women of central Iraq, which is largely Sunni. The Shiite women of southern Iraq live in a far more traditional society, more similair to Iran than central Iraq. The Shiite women are quite restricted, but I found nothing in comperable to the all-out brutality of the Taliban.
I really wish I had saved the pages of the General Federation of Iraqi Women website. It was a Saddam-sponsored government womens group. It offered a really interesing glipse of the propeganda of Iraq.
Despite the progess, Saddam's regime did pass laws oppressive to women. "Honor killings" were legalized under his rule. Also, suspected prostitutes have been publicly decapitated.
Women who were dissenters, or relatives of dissenters were often brutalized under the regime. Women were tortured and/or raped in view of their husbands to extract information. Rape is considered a stain upon family honor, and was used as a tool of terror in the regime, because it shames male political opponents into submission.

This is an excellent article on Iraqi Kurdish women and what their sitation is like http://www.washtimes.com/world/20021014-51570793.htm

I didn't really do a great deal of research about before the Baath party took over Iraq, as my paper focused more on the current situation. I barely found anything about the sitation of women before then anyway.