ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The massacre of 31 women at a Baghdad brothel is a consequence of the lawlessness gripping Iraq, women activists warn.
“Any state that respects itself will not allow this. Where is the law?” said Pakhshan Zangana, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) High Council of Women Affairs in Erbil.
The women’s bodies and those of two men were found in a building in Baghdad’s Zayouna neighborhood earlier this month.
While no one has taken responsibility for the killings, there are indications that religious extremists were responsible for the slaughter. “This is the fate of any prostitution” was reportedly found scrawled on a door.
Baghdad’s powerful Shiite militias have been deployed in the capital since the government called on volunteer fighters to battle the Sunni extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, (ISIS) which has threatened to take over Baghdad.
“Who kills 31 women? This is about creating chaos and scaring people, with no government, no law and no courts,” said Zangana. “In any conflict, women are the first victims.”
Although it was reported that the women were killed in a brothel, Zangana questioned if the women were prostitutes. She recalled that many women were killed under the guise of an anti-prostitution campaign toward the end of Saddam Hussein’s rule when lawlessness spun out of control. One of the victims was a doctor who had protested shortages in medicine.
“Her head was put on a stick under the name of fighting prostitution,” Zangana said.
Hanaa Edwar, a prominent women’s activist who heads the Amal Association for civil development in Baghdad, said prostitutes had been killed in the neighborhood before but government investigations into past murders have gone nowhere.
“No militias should have a free hand on the streets,” Edwar said. “The weakness of state institutions gives militias these opportunities.”
Husbands in prison and poverty force women into prostitution to feed and support their children, she said. “They are victims. Yet the prison sentence for prostitution is seven to 15 years.”
They aren’t necessarily seen that way. Even when she lobbied an Iraqi minister to provide shelter for young prostitutes, the official told Edwar that they are sinners, not victims.
She also pointed out the double standards in Iraq’s increasingly conservative society, where women are sometimes told to sleep with their bosses to get promotions and jobs.
Iraq also recently proposed the infamous Jaafari Personal Status Law which “would restrict women’s rights in matters of inheritance and parental and other rights after divorce, make it easier for men to take multiple wives, and allow girls to be married from age nine,” according to Human Rights Watch.
The law “turns women into tools for the satisfaction of men. It’s the trend now in Iraq,” said Edwar.
The influx of radical Sunni fighters strengthens extremist views toward women. Some Tweets by ISIS supporters are revealing: “O sisters, don't distract your husbands from doing their duty, don't become an obstacle in the Path of Allah; Encourage them to wage jihad!”
When all amusement is forbidden, young men have nothing left to do but to marry and fight, Edwar pointed out. Their families pay a heavy price: If they die, their wives often can’t support the family and many children are left without documents proving the father’s identity.
“If (the families) do not get help, the children will grow up to hate the society and could turn into terrorists themselves,” Edwar said.
Growing violence is deeply impacting all Iraqis, and “women are an easy target,” Edwar said.
“The situation among families has worsened, as everybody is angry and stressed,” Zangana agreed.
Yet both in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, “sadly politics and programs for women are off the table,” Zangana maintained.
“The parties need programs for women and youth to prevent the influence of the radicals here,” she said.
