FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MADRE, An International Women's Human Rights Organization
US Women Host House Parties to Support Women's Shelters in Iraq
Contact:
Irene Schneeweis,
Media Coordinator
PHONE: 212-627-0444
EMAIL: media@madre.org
October 24, 2005—New York—On the heels of Iraq's constitutional referendum, MADRE, an international women's human rights organization, is launching a campaign in support of women's shelters in Iraq. Iraq's new constitution poses grave threats to women's basic rights, including their right to a life free of domestic violence. The constitution posits Islamic law as a basic source of national legislation and gives reactionary clerics bent on restricting women's rights a strong hand in interpreting and enforcing Iraqi law.
MADRE Executive Director Vivian Stromberg commented, "War and the rise of religious extremism have already unleashed a wave of violence against women in Iraq. Two and a half years after their 'liberation' at the hands of US troops, Iraqi women are experiencing unprecedented levels of 'honor killings,' domestic violence, rape, abduction, and forced marriages. MADRE's partners in Iraq fear that this trend will escalate with the passage of Iraq's new constitution."
To raise awareness of the crisis and support Iraq's only network of women's shelters founded by MADRE's sister organization, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, MADRE is mobilizing women around the US to host house parties. Dozens of gatherings are being planned where people can learn about the real-life impact of the US occupation on Iraqi women's lives and offer concrete support to Iraqi women who are fighting for their basic human rights.
For more information and to help spread the word about MADRE's campaign in support of Iraqi women, click here or call MADRE at 212-627-0444.
Available for interviews on the rise of violence against women in US-occupied Iraq:
Yifat Susskind, MADRE's Communications Director, was born and raised in Israel and was active in the Israeli women's peace movement for several years before joining MADRE in 1997. Her critical analysis of US foreign policy and women's human rights has appeared in online and print publications such as TomPaine.com, Foreign Policy in Focus, and The W Effect: Bush's War on Women, published by the Feminist Press in 2004. Ms. Susskind has also been featured as a commentator on CNN, National Public Radio, and BBC.
Yanar Mohammed is the Director and Founder of MADRE's sister organization, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI). Through OWFI, Ms. Mohammed has established four shelters to protect Iraqi women from a sharp rise in violence since the US invasion. Ms. Mohammed has received death threats for her work to further women's human rights, but she continues to fight publicly against both the US occupation and Islamic fundamentalism. She has appeared frequently in the Iraqi and Arab press, and has been featured as a commentator in major international media, including The New York Times and CBS Evening News. Ms. Mohammed lives in Toronto and Baghdad.
