Starting with Iraq and specifically women and girls in Iraq. So we're all on the same page, let's drop back to July 29th:
Baghdad's Tahrir Square was the scene of a protest today. SHAFAQ NEWS reports:
Hundreds of Iraqi women took to the streets of Baghdad on Sunday to protest against proposed amendments to the country’s personal status law, expressing particular outrage over provisions that would legalize child marriage.
Demonstrators, including members of women’s rights organizations, gathered in Tahrir Square, carrying signs that read "No to child marriage" and "The era of child brides is over." The protesters denounced the proposed amendments to Law 88 of 1959, arguing that they would roll back women’s rights.
Reaction on Twitter to the proposal?
The Guardian. 'They felt that feminist, gender and women’s organisations, plus civil
society and activist movements, posed a threat to their power and
status'." Cathrin Schaer (FRANCE 24) adds, "The other big problem is how the choice could divide Iraqi society.
While the current law applies to all Iraqis equally, separate legal
systems could inflame societal and sectarian tensions and degrade the
status of Iraq's judiciary." ANHA notes a statement from Iraqi women opposed to proposal who are calling "on all institutions and organizations
advocating for women's and children's rights in Iraq to raise their
voices against these legal amendments. It stressed that 'a 9-year-old
girl’s place is not in marriage and childbirth, but in playing in parks
and attending school.' The women urged for the cancellation of this
decision before it is approved and called on Iraqi society to oppose
these amendments that threaten women's rights and dignity." At Brookings, Marsin Alshamary observes, "Iraqi women have more rights than many of their regional counterparts,
but they must constantly battle to preserve them. In response to the
proposed bill, activists, politicians, and lawyers formed Coalition 188 (named after the original PSL) and demonstrated throughout Iraq. Female legislators and policymakers including Nour Nafea, who emerged from the 2019 protest movement -- and veteran politician Ala Talabani -- have worked tirelessly to protest the law." And Christina Lamb (SUNDAY TIMES OF LONDON) provides this context, "It’s not the first time Iraqi lawmakers
have tried this -- previous attempts were blocked. But the country's
political system is dominated by conservative Shia Muslim parties who
form the largest coalition in parliament and have been pushing to erode
women's and LGBT rights. In April they made same-sex relationships
punishable with up to 15 years' imprisonment. Initially they were trying
to impose the death penalty. The law also criminalised transgender
people and what it called 'intentional practice of effeminacy'."
After youth protests erupted across Iraq in 2019, politicians 'saw that
the role of women had begun to strengthen in society', Nadia Mahmood,
co-founder of the Aman Women's Alliance, told Israel’s latest attack on az-Zawayda. The victims from the Abu Jawad family included 11 children aged between two and 11."
Palestinians in Gaza held funerals for 15 members of the same family killed in Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) pointed out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned
the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." Months ago, United Nations Women noted,
"More than
1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza --
have
been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million
women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million
people -- are in crisis levels of of acute food insecurity or worse." Months
ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained
on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000
Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of
their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe
Lazzarini Tweeted:
The death toll in Gaza has risen to 40,074 after 69 people were killed in the past 24 hours, the enclave's Health Ministry said. The ministry added that the number of injured people has reached 92,537 since the war began on October 7." Early on,
April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as
killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000
Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has
estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into
Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
The following sites updated: