منظمة البديل الشيوعي في العراق تنظيم شيوعي عمالي منهجه الفكري والسياسي ماركسي مستنبط من “البيان الشيوعي”
Anyone who follows the status of women in Iraq from afar or closely cannot ignore the sharp decline in women’s rights and freedoms amid the dominance and hegemony of militia, sectarian and tribal forces over the past decades, and will find the paragraph on women in the recent joint statement between the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister of Iraq, issued following Al-Sudani’s visit to Britain two weeks ago, confusing, misleading and even downright insulting.
Only one week had passed since the date of the aforementioned statement, until the Iraqi parliament announced, specifically on January 21, and within a reactionary tripartite deal of laws between the parliamentary blocs, the passage of one of the most reactionary and arbitrary laws against women in the history of the country, namely the infamous amendment to Personal Status Law 188 of 1959. In this deal, the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish nationalist parliamentary blocs are risking the lives of women and girls in Iraq for the sake of specific political gains, each in the interest of its own parliamentary bloc. It seems that this major event and historical leap backwards, which has been, for several months, a source of great concern for millions of women and children in Iraq, progressive women, human rights defenders, socialists, and all emancipatories, and poses a threat to the life and safety of every woman, girl, and child in this society, has been -conveniently- forgotten by the two prime ministers!
The first thing that catches the eye when reading the paragraph on women in the statement is that it is characterized by hollow phrases and the absence of any pledge or commitment regarding women’s rights and their status in Iraq, as all the phrases did not go beyond empty words such as “pledge”, “welcome”, “agree”, “realize the importance”, which do not lead to any real change in the miserable lives of women in Iraq. But this did not disappoint me, as achieving any progress in women’s rights and equality in Iraq is not what Iraqi women expect from the sectarian religious nationalist system steeped in masculinity, nor is caring for the rights and welfare of the most vulnerable in society on the agenda of the current Labour Party in Britain headed by Keir Starmer, so how can he pay attention to Iraqi women, especially since his party, under the leadership of Tony Blair and the right-wing line in the Labour Party called the New Labour, had played an effective reactionary role in the occupation of Iraq and brought about the destruction of all infrastructure and the consolidation of sectarianism with the resulting dominance of Islamic, sectarian and nationalist parties and the spread of terrorist groups’ hotbeds and catastrophic massacres in Iraq.
But what struck me when I read the statement was the blatant male hypocrisy, as the statement refers in the paragraph on women to the two sides’ pledge to “deepen cooperation on the UN’s Women, Peace and Security Agenda” and Britain’s welcome of “Iraq’s plans to launch its third national plan and a network of Iraqi women peacemakers in March 2025,” as if everything is fine in Iraq! Ignoring the fact that half of Iraqi society has lost all sense of security and peace, in their homes and in their workplaces, as a result of the insistence of the Shiite political Islam parties on passing these amendments that violate all human values and even international standards and norms, and ensure the dominance of religious authorities over marriage and divorce issues, and legalize the rape of girls from the age of 9, and contribute greatly to the impoverishment of women and stripping them of their rights to inheritance, child custody, and the few existing rights and privileges, and deepening sectarianism and division in society.
Although the statement indicates that “the Prime Ministers agreed on the importance of supporting women-led organizations and women’s rights organizations, and recognized the need for continued support, justice and accountability for all survivors of sexual violence committed by ISIS,” I did not find in any of the news reports any women among the delegations, nor any news about meeting with women’s rights representatives, and none of the deals included projects related to the health and well-being of women, children, or any marginalized group in Iraq. Or perhaps the Iraqi delegation forgot to tell their British counterpart about the relentless persecution by the Iraqi regime against women’s organizations since 2003 and the systematic repression of feminist and emancipatory activists in Iraq.
The statement continues, “and the ongoing efforts to end violence against women and girls…,” at a time when the implementation of the amendment to the Personal Status Law is nothing but the largest campaign of violence against Iraqi women and children, organized by the state and its parliament and supported by the reactionary male-dominated tribal and sectarian system that Britain has contributed and continues to contribute to consolidating for decades.
The last sentence, “They agreed on the importance of girls completing a good education and empowering women economically, which benefits the whole society,” was just mockery and ridicule, as the amendment of Law 188, inspired by the Jaafari school, encourages the marriage of girls from the age of 9 and their forced entry into homes and their engagement in raising children and managing the household while they are still children themselves. So, what education and what economic empowerment are they talking about?
A “historic deal,” for whose benefit?
Al-Sudani’s visit, described as “historic,” “exceptional,” and “distinctive,” with the aim of strengthening relations in the fields of economy, security, and irregular migration, was reported to have been accompanied by a delegation of about 70 Iraqi businessmen and included several seminars and meetings with 24 British companies to discuss investment projects in the private sector and resulted in a trade package investment of about 12.3 billion pounds, supported by a series of export agreements, to support the growing trade relations between Britain and Iraq.
But this 12.3 billion is primarily aimed at accumulating profits for the investing British capitalist companies and their corrupt partners from the authorities and their entourage of capitalists in Iraq. This capitalist economic growth is necessarily accompanied by more impoverishment, deprivation and deepening of inequality for the toiling masses in Iraq and for women in particular.
These agreements have important economic and political strategic advantages for both governments;
Britain, which has suffered several major economic blows in recent years due to Brexit, the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine, is trying to blame the country’s problems of unemployment, poverty, housing shortages and lack of public services on refugees, illegal immigrants, the poor and pensioners by implementing the policies of deportation of refugees, cutting social security benefits and pensioner benefits and selling public services to the private sector. One of the important provisions of the agreement was the reactionary and arbitrary decisions against refugees and discussing practical plans to implement this inhumane policy of deporting refugees whose asylum claims have been rejected in Britain and finalising the agreement that was signed between the two parties last November, which Home Secretary Yvette Cooper boasts as historic, especially since Iraqis constitute a significant percentage of these immigrants.
As for Iraq, this agreement came against the backdrop of the explosion of events in the region, the change of regime in Syria, changes in the regional balance of power, and Iraq’s need to find allies from Western countries to avoid the threats of Israel and America against Iran and its regional allies, and in anticipation of the Trump administration and its policies towards Iraq and the region.
What is happening on the ground in Iraq is the complete opposite of the bright image reflected in the above statement, and the threats facing women against the backdrop of the passage of the Jaafari law for the Coordination Framework government, led by Al-Sudani, are the result of the policies of Western countries, specifically Britain and America, and their strategy towards Iraq, especially since 2003.
Sherin Abdullah
1/31/2025
