THE STRUGGLE FOR WOMEN’S FREEDOM IN IRAQ:

An Evening with Yanar Mohammed

In New York City at Pace University on Thursday, Oct.23, 2003

 

 

Welcome and Introduction: Emilce Cura and Jennifer Fasulo, Working Committee in Support of Iraqi Women’s right

 

We are standing here tonight on behalf of many people who worked very hard to organize this event-- and with very little time.  I would like to thank all of those in the Working Committee in Support of Iraqi Women’s Freedom (Laili, Fereshteh, Mahmood, Anne, Haydar, Sandra, Atena, Josh, Maya, Yamuna, Lili, Sara, Analiz, and Rose )    We would like to thank Project Pericles at Pace for sponsoring the event and providing us with this wonderful space, and Sangeeta Rao for her special contribution to making this event possible.  Many thanks to the Iraqi Women’s Rights Coalition and the Worker Communist Party of Iraq and Iran for providing us with much of the literature that you will find on the back table for those who are interested in more reading.   We want to thank Fran Luck of the Joys of Resistance feminist multi-cultural radio program on WBAI for her valiant commitment to this project.  Parts of tonight’s speech, along with an interview with Ms. Mohammed will be aired as part of a 2 hour special broadcast of the Joys of Resistance, this Monday, October 27 between 11am and 1pm.  Finally, we would like to thank our co-sponsors, Redstockings Allies and Veterans, Worker Communist Party of Iran, and News and Letters.

 

Ms. Mohammed’s presentation will be approximately one hour and we will have time for question and comments afterward.  We are in for a special treat tonight because Ms. Mohammed has brought photographs and a short video clip of the work of her organization and the Union of Unemployed Workers in Iraq. 

 

It is very appropriate that tonight’s event should take place in this particular location, just a few blocks from the site of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.  This devastating event connected the US and Iraq in such terrible way.  The agony and grief of the survivors and family members of Sept 11, opened the eyes of many in the US to what has been a daily reality for people in so many other parts of the world.  It became a pre-text for the invasion of Iraq, unleashing a reign of state terror which decimated Iraqi society, and took the lives of thousands more innocent people.  And it symbolizes the connection we will hear of tonight between the US government and Political Islam.

 

This story you will hear tonight is a story that American audiences have not heard--  a story of a new movement which holds out great hope for the future of the Iraqi people and women in particular; a story of  impossible courage in the face of unimaginable conditions.  Amidst all the bad news about Iraq, that glares at us each day from newspaper headlines, we will hear tonight, not only about the horrifying conditions, but also the hope and excitement of a movement capable of transforming those conditions.  In the US media, we hear of a conflict with only two sides: the US occupying forces on one hand and the Islamic factions and Baath party loyalists on the other-- What goes entirely unreported in the US is the third alternative:  a grassroots, secular, people’s movement, a working class and women’s movement, that opposes all past, present and would be future oppressors; that sees itself as part of a international movement for freedom, justice and a better world.  Tonight’s presentation invites us to move one step beyond simply opposing the occupation, to forging a people to people solidarity with the true struggle for freedom and liberation in Iraq.

 

And this is a story of women.  Courageous, determined, powerful women, not the stereotypic images which abound in the west of the veiled and submissive Arab woman, but women who will not bow down to patriarchal authority, be it foreign or domestic.  Women who demand women’s rights as universal rights and who shine as beacons of hope, not just for Iraqi women, but for women throughout the world-- where our movements are so often pushed to the margins, condemned as “irrelevant” or “a secondary struggle”   The statement of founding for her organizations begins, “Women’s freedom is the measure of freedom and humanity in society.  Not only in Iraq, where women endure the most severe types of discrimination and injustice, but also in the more developed countries in the world today. The realization of full equality between women and men still requires serious continuous and rapid steps.”

 

It is a very great honor to be at this podium introducing Yanar Mohammed.  Ms. Mohammed is one of the most amazing and courageous fighter’s for women’s rights active in the world today.  She is the founder of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), an independent women’s organization which fights to stop atrocities against women and advocate for women’s social, political and economic rights.  OWFI recently demonstrated in streets of Baghdad against the rapes and abductions of women, which have become so severe since the US invaded Iraqi society that it is not even safe for women to leave their house in the broad daylight.  One of OWFI’s main projects is the establishment of a women’s shelter in Baghdad which Ms. Mohammed will be telling you about tonight. 

 

She is also the editor of al Mousawat newspaper (which means “Equality” in Arabic) a women’s newspaper which circulates throughout Baghdad and beyond.   She has been a lead negotiator in the recent sit in protests by the Union of Unemployed in Iraq, a mass organization with over 100,000 members.  And she is a member of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq, a young grassroots party, founded in 1993 that differs from the traditional Communist Party in its critique of the Russian and Chinese brands of communism; its strong opposition to political Islam and nationalism and its emphasis on human liberation, political freedom and the original teachings of Marx.  The Worker Communist Party is the only political party in Iraq which has lent its full and active support to the struggle for women’s rights.

 

Ms. Mohammed was born in Baghdad in 1960.  She spent many years under the Baath regime dictatorship and was active in the grassroots struggle against it.  She witnessed the eighties war with Iran, the invasion of Kuwait, the catastrophic “Desert Storm” and the genocidal UN sanctions that followed.  She graduated from Baghdad University in 1993, obtaining a Master’s Degree in Architecture.  She left Iraq in the mid nineties for Canada.  In her own words, “it was the economic sanctions that made me leave (Iraq) I could not feed my son properly any more.”  In Toronto, she set up the organization Defense of Iraqi Women’s Rights, which worked from Canada to support the Independent Women’s Organization, in establishing a women’s shelter in Northern Iraq.  That shelter has saved the lives of over 250 women who were targeted for “honor killings” 

 

Ms. Mohammed was the keynote speaker for International Women's Day events in Vancouver, Canada, in March 2003, just weeks before the US invasion of Iraq where she spoke about the long and valiant history of Iraqi women’s struggle and spoke out against the imminent US attack.  She correctly predicted that the US war on Iraq would once again hit women harder than anyone else. After the start of the war and ouster of the Baath party regime, Ms. Mohammed, chose to end her exile in Toronto.  She risked her safety, the security and status of her job as a lead architect and returned to her home to continue the fight for the future of the Iraqi people.    She has been in Baghdad for the last seven months and will be offering us a first-hand account of the devastating post-war conditions, the backlash the war has unleashed on women, and the exciting grassroots organizing which is combating both the US occupation, as well as the right-wing Islamic reaction that it has unleashed.  

In addition to her political work, Ms. Mohammed is also a mother and an accomplished architect and artist.  She has designed and sculpted large ceramic murals, one of which is displayed at the entrance at the Canadian Arab Federation building in Toronto Canada.  

Ms. Mohammed’s talents and accomplishments are exhaustive.  But above all else, she is an activist who believes in changing the world.  Once when asked about her artwork, she responded, “As for the sculptor part of myself, I have to admit that clay and ceramic are no longer the medium I am interested in—it is people.”  We are not alone in our assessment of her character.  It seems all who meet her, come away marveling at her strength and courage.  One activist who traveled to Baghdad had this to say about her, “Other women's groups in Iraq are careful not to criticize the current Occupying Authority. Yanar represents one that is willing to speak and act boldly.”  Another writes, “despite how bleak things are in Iraq, she and her organization, are one of the signs of hope for the Iraqi people”   Others have compared her to Norma Rae, the radical labor organizer, short in stature, but monumental in courage and determination.

Though internationally known and in constant demand for speaking engagements, tonight marks Ms. Mohammed’s first appearance on a New York  stage.  We think after hearing her speak tonight, you will agree with us that her arrival in New York City is long overdue.  Please join us in celebrating and welcoming the tremendous activist and warrior for women’s freedom:  Ms. Yanar Mohammed.