According to a complaint of Amnesty International (AI), women in Iraq suffer from systematic discrimination and violence directed against them specifically because of their gender. AI has also noted that Iraqi law allows ‘honorable motives’ in murder cases of women by their husbands, parents, and teachers. These result in exemption from criminal liability and punishment, as based on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law (Sharia), as well as by custom.
Women suffer violence on the streets at the hands of ‘men with different political agendas.’ The reasons are common, though: impose the wearing of the veil, segregation, and discrimination based on sex. AI further observes that the Islamist groups that have been accountable for aggression against women justify their act by saying that the victims were not behaving as women should.
According to Amnesty International, six years have passed since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein but Iraqi lawmakers have not yet reformed laws, and have, in fact and in practice, approved and even facilitated violence against women and girls. A glaring example of this is the provision in the Penal Code which states that a man convicted of murder under ‘honorable motives’ may be sentenced to only six months imprisonment. In practice, the legislation also allows men to use violence against their wives.
As a result, AI says, it is common for the police not to arrest the men accused of violence against women. When the police carry out an arrest on rare occasions, the detainee is most likely to merit a lighter sentence, even if he murdered the woman. “This sends out a terrifying message to all women in Iraq – that they may be killed and beaten with impunity,” Amnesty declares.
