Women’s rights activists in Iraq say they face death threats, isolation and a slow, uncertain legal process as they work to expose sexual harassment and abuse. Some post videos of harassment online, while others pursue cases through courts that they say are difficult to navigate.
Activist Sarah Jassim says the footage she shares on her Instagram page helps document harassment. She posts videos on behalf of women who say they have been sexually abused or harassed by Iraqi men and boys. “Your camera is your weapon,” she said. “It’s a way to document evidence in case a woman decides to sue her harasser, or at least it is a means to shame him.”
Activists turn to video to expose harassment
One clip shows a woman in a busy Baghdad street confronting a driver she accuses of exposing himself and making obscene comments. The footage shows the man resisting her attempts to open his car door. Jassim said one of the videos she posted led to the arrest of an alleged perpetrator, a policeman accused of harassing schoolgirls.
Jassim said sharing such material carries risks, both for her and for the women involved. She said society often blames the victim. She told of receiving death threats and of being warned of acid attacks. She also said she has been accused of inciting public indecency, which she linked to encouraging women to speak out in a society that expects them to stay silent.
Jassim now rarely leaves home for her own safety, she said, and spends much of her time with her dog. She argues that Iraq needs stricter laws, including ones that explicitly criminalise harassment and gender-based violence, terms she said are currently absent from the penal code. “Recognising the problem is the best way to address it,” she said. “We need protection, abusers have to be deterred.”
A long court battle for one mother and daughter
Many women interviewed said they felt failed by the justice and police systems. Activists and lawyers described legal action against a harasser or rapist as a long process in Iraq, with complicated procedures and uncertain results.
One woman, identified only as Amal, has been fighting a court case for about five years. She accuses her ex-husband of repeatedly raping their daughter, who was under 18 at the time, at gunpoint. Amal said her daughter described the father entering her room and placing his weapon on the bed, and telling her: “No-one will hear you if I kill you.” These are Amal’s accounts, and the allegations have not been tested in court.
Amal said she went to the police quickly after the incident. She described bruises on her daughter’s wrists and said the girl was held down and silenced. Amal showed medical documents, including DNA evidence, which she says support her account. She also said she heard her ex-husband tell a family member to “wash off our disgrace” if he was arrested, a phrase she said is used in Iraq to refer to so-called honour killings.
Amal said she believes the father threatened to end his daughter’s life so that the medical report would not be released and the assault would not be proven. She said he is on the run and the case remains open. She said he had hired several lawyers while she could not afford representation, and that her family had ignored what was happening. “I fought all alone,” she said. She no longer believes a court ruling will favour her, saying she simply wants him to stay out of her life.
Survivors face stigma, few shelters and rising attacks
Sexual abuse has long been a taboo subject in Iraq, according to those interviewed. Many survivors prefer to stay silent because of possible family backlash, while others fear social stigma and harassment if they go to the police. Many survivors also have no independent income and nowhere to go, and Iraq has very few shelters for abused women.
The shelters that do exist were set up by an organisation co-founded by Yanar Mohammed, an internationally recognised women’s rights advocate. Mohammed was murdered outside her home in Baghdad by armed men last March, and the perpetrators remain unknown. Experts working for the UN Human Rights Council wrote in April that she had received death threats and online abuse for years, which they said were believed to come from extremist religious militia.
Activists said attacks on their colleagues have risen in recent years. Hanaa Edwar, another prominent campaigner, said she saw Mohammed just two days before she was killed and that she has also been threatened. “There are no laws, no protection, and no justice for women in Iraq,” she said.
Officials acknowledge gaps as women describe harassment
Samira, who asked not to be named, said walking in the street leaves her on edge after repeated harassment. She described a man on public transport who was watching pornography on his phone and held it in her face. In another incident in Baghdad, she said a man followed her by car for more than 10 minutes. She said she flagged down a police car, but the officers told her they did not have the authority to act.
Samira said she has lost faith in state institutions. She said many men, including police officers, see nothing wrong with sexual harassment. Many women interviewed also accused police of harassment. Muqdad Miri, a spokesman for Iraq’s interior ministry, said cases involving police personnel do occur but are very few, and that those found responsible face up to 10 years in prison and dismissal. He said Samira could have filed a complaint against the officer who turned her away.
Miri said some women post harassment online because it is easier than filing an official report, and because it has become a common way to draw attention to a cause. He said police had received about 300 reports of sexual violence since the start of the year. He acknowledged that the real number is higher, saying that “many cases never reach the police because of society, customs and traditions.” There are no reliable statistics for sexual violence or harassment in Iraq.
A May report by a UN committee on discrimination against women described violence against women and girls in Iraq as “widespread and under-reported” and called for stronger legislation. Among its many recommendations, it urged authorities to repeal laws it called discriminatory, which exonerate rapists if they marry their victims, and to end reduced sentences for murders carried out as so-called honour killings.
Edwar, who has campaigned for women’s causes for more than 50 years, described a bleak outlook. “Twenty-three years after Saddam Hussein’s regime was brought down, it seems we are going backwards regarding women’s rights.” Jassim said she and others refuse to give up. “If all of us are going to get scared, no-one will change anything,” she said.
Anyone affected by sexual abuse or violence can speak to a health professional or an organisation that offers support.
