[Wamvan] Fwd: Iraqi Human Rights Activists Sexually Assaulted and Beaten

[Joanna Chiu]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MADRE: Rights, Resources and Results for Women Worldwide
CONTACT: Stephanie Küng, MADRE (212) 627-0444, media at madre.org

  *Iraqi Human Rights Activists Protesting for Democracy Are Sexually
Assaulted and Beaten*

*June 10, 2011 – New York, NY* – Today, MADRE learned that pro-democracy
activists who gathered in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square were brutally attacked by
un-uniformed forces. MADRE’s Iraqi partner group, the Organization of
Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), states that activists who gathered in the
square to continue their weeks of protests for democracy, jobs and an end to
corruption were beaten by armed men who were unleashed to disperse the
protests.

OWFI also reports that women were specifically targeted for sexual attacks.
Four young women OWFI activists were violently groped and sexually
assaulted, and one 19-year-old woman was attacked by a group of men who
attempted to forcibly strip off her clothes. One woman lost a tooth in the
attack. Another OWFI activist, a young man, tried to intervene and was
severely beaten.

Pro-democracy protests began in Iraq on February 25, part of the wave of
uprisings that has swept across the region. As an attempt to appease
demonstrators, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki promised that reforms
would be enacted within 100 days. This week, the government missed that
deadline without meeting the demonstrators’ demands. Activists organized
today’s protest to denounce the lack of reforms.

Activists also believe that the men who attacked today’s demonstration were
organized by Iraq’s official security forces and were un-uniformed to keep
them from being held accountable. OWFI reports that the attackers arrived at
the demonstration by the thousands on chartered buses.

Yanar Mohammed, OWFI Director, said today, “For months, young women have
been demonstrating for democracy in Tahrir Square, joining thousands of
others who believe in a vision of an Iraq that is democratic and rooted in
human rights. But instead of being heard, they have been viciously attacked
in an attempt to silence them.”

Yifat Susskind, MADRE Executive Director, said today, “Women have been
leaders of these pro-democracy protests, in Iraq and throughout the region.
Today’s attacks were not random but part of a deliberate strategy of sexual
violence. It is an attempt to terrorize women who have been the catalysts
for demonstrations that call for a new Iraq.”

*Available for interviews:*

*Yanar Mohammed, OWFI Director*. OWFI is an Iraqi women’s human rights
organization that works to shelter women escaping violence and denounce
violations of women’s human rights.  She also works as Editor-in-Chief of a
newspaper called Equality (Al-Mousawat) and is an important and passionate
speaker on behalf of Iraqi women.

*Yifat Susskind, MADRE Executive Director*, has worked with women’s human
rights activists from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East to create
programs in their communities to address violence against women, economic
development, climate change, and armed conflict.

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-- 
Joanna Chiu

Freelance Writer
joannachiu.com <http://www.joannachiu.com/>
twitter.com/joannachiu

Organizer, WAM! Vancouver
wamvancouver.wordpress.com
twitter.com/wamvancity
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