Women's Organizing and the Conflict in Iraq since 2003

Citation:

Al-Ali, Nadje, and Nicola Pratt. 2008. “Women’s Organizing and the Conflict in Iraq since 2003.” Feminist Review 88: 74–85.

Authors: Nadje Al-Ali, Nicola Pratt

Abstract:

This article examines the development of a women’s movement in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. It describes the types of activities and the strategies of different women activists, as well as highlighting the main divisions among them. The article also discusses the various ways in which the ongoing occupation and escalating violence in Iraq has shaped women’s activism and the object of their struggles. Communal and sectarian tensions had been fostered by the previous regime as well as by the political opposition in exile prior to 2003, but the systematic destruction of national institutions, such as the army and the police, by the occupation forces, has led to a flare-up of the sectarian conflict. The article concludes by evaluating women’s activism in terms of its contributions to conflict on the one hand and national reconciliation on the other.

Keywords: Iraqi women's movement, Iraqi women's rights activists, post-invasion Iraq, occupation, violence, sectarian politics

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Gender, Women, NGOs, Political Participation, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq

Year: 2008