in case you still know anyone who thinks we "liberated" Iraqi women...
CODEPINK has just published a report documenting that life for women in Iraq is much, much worse than before, and that Americans are DISTINCTLY making the problem worse...read it all here.
(and keep up on all their great work here.)
from the e-mail I received describing the report:
"The report shows that from 1958 to the 1990s, Iraq provided more rights and freedoms for women and girls than most of its neighbors. Though Saddam Hussein's dictatorial government and 12 years of severe sanctions reduced these opportunities, Iraqi women were active in all aspects of their society. After the occupation, with the exception of women in Iraqi Kurdistan, women's daily lives have been reduced to a mere struggle for survival."
A choice section from the report:
"THE U.S. IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. Some U.S. military personnel have committed crimes of sexual
abuse and physical assault against women. Many women have told stories about rapes and routine sexual humiliation, particularly at detainment centers....U.S. military tactics have also victimized women and their families—displacing them from their homes, subjecting them to aerial assaults, and occasionally using women as bargaining chips in exchange for suspected male insurgents."