Two sides of women's oppression
By Sara Flounders
How is it possible that women in Iraq--who
made the most stunning gains in rights, benefits and
participation in society of any women in the Arab world--could
suddenly face losses of economic, political and social rights
guaranteed by law for almost 50 years?
The U.S. war and occupation, whose leaders promised to bring
liberation and a new day, have reversed decades of progressive
legislation and social achievements that were most remarkable
in the region.
At the same time, women in the U.S. military face the
greatest threats and danger not from combat with the "enemy,"
but from men in the U.S. military. The number of rapes, sexual
assaults and sexual harassment against women soldiers has
reached epidemic proportions.
Two-thirds of female service members experience unwanted,
uninvited sexual behavior, according to Terri Spahr Nelson,
author of "For Love of Country: Confront ing Rape and Sexual
Harassment in the U.S. Military."
Dismantling guaranteed rights
In Iraq, the status of women is being returned to that of
women in other countries of the Gulf region where the U.S.
military machine props up and maintains corrupt feudal
dictatorships.
In these societies women are literally slaves, imprisoned in
the home and held captive within a repressive patriarchal
system. They have no right to work or control their own funds
or even to drive a car. They cannot even travel unaccompanied
by a male family member. They have no right to vote or to
participate in any form of political life.
In Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and throughout the oil-rich Gulf
states, women have no rights that any man is bound to respect.
They have no right to decide who they will marry, nor do they
have a right to divorce, even from an abusive husband.
Education is separate--and so unequal that most women in
oil-rich Saudi Arabia are still illiterate.
Iraqi women, by contrast, had been guar anteed sweeping
rights for almost 50 years. This didn't happen in isolation. It
was part of a revolutionary upsurge that began in 1958.
Centuries of landlord feudal privilege and reaction were swept
away.
Nationalizing the oil meant that there were the resources to
carry out mass literacy programs, provide free, quality health
care, subsidize day care and housing. The government provided a
student stipend that was an immediate incentive for families to
keep both male and female children in school.
The rapidly growing economy ensured employment for thousands
of young women. Iraqi women were guaranteed by law that if they
couldn't find a job in the private sector, the government had
to provide them a job in their chosen field or educational
level. The government was the largest employer of women.
Thirty-eight percent of doctors in Iraq are women. Women
were the majority of university students.
The destruction of the 1991 U.S. war on Iraq and the 12
years of strangling sanctions that followed destroyed the
economy that had sustained these social changes.
And within six months of the U.S. occupation, free quality
health care, so damaged under the years of sanctions, had been
totally destroyed. Electricity was sporadic, medicines and
equipment no longer supplied.
Free pre- and post-natal care is now a distant memory.
Ninety-five percent of pregnant women are anemic. Their babies
are born low weight, premature and sick.
Guaranteed six-month paid maternity leave is gone, along
with guaranteed jobs. Subsidized day care, food subsidies and
housing subsidies are gone. The massive bombing destroyed
schools, hospitals, health clinics. The ministries and social
agencies were totally looted as occupation troops stood by.
Lack of safety or money to buy books keeps a growing number of
children, especially young women, out of school.
The U.S.-British occupation forces have cultivated the most
reactionary, corrupt collaborators. Occupation overlord Paul
Bremer appointed to the Iraqi Governing Council representatives
of the old landlord class and the most conservative religious
forces who are hostile to all the social changes of the past
decades. These forces want to bring back the most reactionary
laws--old religious laws and codes that were deeply entrenched
in rural, isolated villages. Now they would be imposed on a
majority urban population.
The U.S.-appointed Governing Council passed Resolution 137,
which abolishes the progressive secular code of the past. The
Islamic Sharia laws would eliminate wom en's rights in
marriage, divorce, inheritance and legal representation, and
would legalize death by stoning for adultery.
Iraqi women reacted by pouring into the streets in mass
demonstrations demanding that Paul Bremer--the U.S. final
"authority" who signs all legislation--not sign this into
law.
Women in U.S. military
In February the Denver Post ran a series of articles on
women in the U.S. military and the growing number of sexual
assaults on them by fellow soldiers. Women who have been
assaulted or raped report poor medical treatment, lack of
counseling, incomplete criminal investigations and even threats
of punishment for reporting the assaults.
The level of violence against women GIs confirms the
absolutely reactionary character of the Pentagon military
machine. As the number of women in the U.S. military increases,
the Pentagon's violence is more starkly exposed.
Young women are joining the military in growing numbers
seeking jobs, skills and the means to support themselves and
their children. More than 59,000 female troops have been
deployed overseas as part of the wars against Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The organized violence, brutality and racism of an army of
occupation are reflected back into their own personal
lives.
The Pentagon functions as an instrument of violence against
oppressed people. It cultivates a culture of violence that
targets women, people of color, and lesbian, gay, bi and trans
people.
Military training in an imperialist army conditions soldiers
to dehumanizing, violent behavior. Training involves
humiliation and breaking down self-esteem and human
solidarity.
This training affects personal relations. In 2001 there were
more than 18,000 reported cases of spouse abuse in the
military. Most domestic violence and abuse are not reported.
Yet even with under-reporting, the rates of abuse are three to
five times higher than civilian rates.
In a patriarchal, class society raping and degrading women
is bound up with power and conquest, not desire. It is
violence, not sex.
The U.S. military's completely reaction ary role in Iraq
poisons even rank-and-file soldiers. This is encouraged by the
officer corps. In military operations--whether in Korea,
Vietnam, the Philip pines, Eastern Europe or Latin
America--U.S. bases are surrounded by sex clubs and bars. It is
an entire sex industry. The desperate conditions and
destruction of war force thousands of women and girls into
prostitution and sexual slavery.
Christen Hansen of the Miles Found ation, who has assisted
women who have been sexually assaulted, says, "We have
significant concerns about the military's response to sexual
assault in the combat zone." According to the Miles Foundation,
30 percent of female veterans reported rape or attempted rape
during active duty.
The assaults, humiliation and cover-ups are not new or
unknown to the officer corps. Nearly 30 percent of female Viet
nam veterans surveyed in 1990 said they experienced sexual
advances, "accom panied by force or threat of force." A
Department of Veterans Affairs survey of 1991 Gulf War female
veterans reported that 33 percent suffered sexual
harassment.
Violence against women is endemic in the Pentagon military
machine--not an accident or an aberration. This is another
crime against humanity that must be raised at and beyond the
worldwide March 20 actions against war and occupation.
Reprinted from the March 11, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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