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April 2002 - Snapshots of Home and Elsewhere - Middle East/Arab World

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Prevent and punish

Women highlighted another regional conflict: one instituted by several countries (Turkey, Iran, and Iraq) against the Kurdish people. Kurdish women in Iraq called for total disarmament and demanded that the UN take measures to put an end to military intervention in Kurdistan and formally recognize the violations of women's rights in these countries.

Illustration : Support card from Kurdish women in Iraq.

Their aim was to try state authorities before an international criminal court for their "complicity in rape, sexual violence, torture and murder."

The World March demand to lift sanctions and embargoes imposed by the super powers against Iraq has particular resonance for women of the region.

Take action against all forms of fundamentalism

Streamers to support the March in Morocco.

With respect to civil rights, Arab women demanded sexual equality, because they are "treated as second-class citizens with a role defined as inferior to that of men," states the common platform.

This is a central issue in Lebanon, where women's groups are fighting for a secular civil code, and in Morocco, where a new civil code guaranteeing increased autonomy for women is being debated.

"My women friends are demonstrating in Algiers on the same issues as the World March: violence and poverty. They are demanding that the rape of women by terrorists be labelled a crime against humanity," said an Algerian woman who came to the rally in New York. She was referring to the bloody civil war that has been raging in that country for many years.

She also talked about the "family code that reduces women to the status of an object," and that relegates women to the status of minors.

Iranian women activists living abroad denounced the role of religious fundamentalists in the violent oppression of women (stoning, hanging, etc.). Jordanian women were acting before the March to obtain legislation prohibiting "honour" crimes.

	Snapshots of Home and Elsewhere - Middle East / Arab World
	Women on the March April 2002

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Last modified 2006-03-23 03:09 PM
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