born 1976, political Scientist and freelance journalist
[19/02/2010]
Intissar, a 29 year old woman, is the daughter of Hassan Olaiwi and she "received" 40 kilos of explosives at the door of her house. She is a militant for women's rights in Najaf, the holy city of the Iraqi Shiites. They tried to intimidate her with anonymous and emphatic calls about what could happen to her at any moment. She also received dozens of threats on her mobile phone. Not to mention the insults and comments that she constantly endures while she walks through the streets
In the summer of 2005, Intissar, fed up with what she saw around her, became an activist. She published articles, got involved in politics, got in touch with foreign organizations. She tried to raise the voice of women in the representative organs of her city and, on the 18th of September 2007, she was chosen as the head of the Council of Civil Society Organization of Najaf. It was then that someone decided that Intissar should not be holding that role in Najaf's public life. She should not become an example of a fighting woman. Or she should, but in a perverse sense: drawing a parallel between a fighting woman and a dead woman. As a warning. And then came the explosives that very nearly cost not only Intissar’s but her whole family's life. "When I suffered the attack the only thing I did to protect myself was stay at home for a month so that everyone thought that I was out out the city. But they did manage to prevent us from opening the Women Affairs Office that we had planned. Nobody was willing to assume such a risk in that context".
In these past four years, Intissar has suffered a real and ongoing pressure by fanatics who, even if they probably represent the feelings of a majority of the population, manage to feel threatened by a woman who is not willing to keep quiet and surrender herself to the process of Islamism that the country is undergoing. Who is ready to fight for her rights and vindicate herself. Who wants to mingle, study, work and participate in decision-taking and in public life. That will not accept being a simple figure in black, covered from head to toe, with her identity squashed.
While we get ready to go out, Intissar keeps talking. She ties back her hair. She covers it with the Hiyad, she unfolds her black tunic and with a swift movement -repeated thousands of times- she wraps herself up completely, from head to toes, with a black mantle, the Abaya. The young woman (my age) in jeans and a t-shirt who has talked with me for hours, now walks the street like a shadow, difficult to distinguish from all the other women there. She does not do this willingly, and she wants to make that clear. "There are women in Najaf for whom leaving their home is an achievement. Many, maybe most of the women of this city, see their outside world reduced to the marketplace, and only a few hours a week, covered in the Abaya, looking at the floor and always accompanied by hurry and shame. They have gone to school only just about enough to read and write and they know that their existence is limited to living in a prison, created by their own family".
Intissar works in the League of Iraqi Women, an organization founded in 1952 and that, 57 years after its foundation, can state as its major achievement in the city of Najaf a demonstration with 17 participants in 2005. "TThe people walking by laughed at us and insulted us. The American soldiers took photographs of us as if we were animals in a zoo and they convinced us to go back to our homes before anyone attacked us".
The idea was to protest against article 41 of what was then the project for a Constitution for Iraq. A useless protest. The Constitution was approved and Article 41, regulating that the various religions and sects are free in the management of their affairs, came into force. Since then, there has been no such thing as civil marriage, nothing like mixed marriages. The possibility of turning into civil law previous religious decisions on practices and customs is contemplated. And especially so when it comes to women. And they clear the way for those who really decide what is and what is not respectable: the militias of the Islamic parties. Since then, the Sunni marry with the Sunni in Sunni courts. And the same with the Shia. Of course there are exceptions. Very few. Only the bravest. There is a civil contract, in private. For the resistants. But, in contrast with the past, mixed marriages are no longer the norm, among communities that have, de facto, been separated. "In Iraq, the sectarian origin was not something you asked about. Since the invasion, the sectarian belonging has become the center of your identity. The Government and the Constitution are taking society in that direction." she says with anger. When the Constitution was approved, a provisional six month period was established. During that period, changes could be introduced. "Three years have passed and not only are there no changes, the laws to make it effective have not even been passed". Intissar has no trust in the political process Iraq is undergoing.
Regarding the oncoming elections, she explains that the law specifies that the third place in the lists must go to a woman. At the same time, there is always a way to go around this dispositions approved by the parliament. "I cannot condone that we become a quota relegated to a third position. We want to be able to take any position. And many women, even once elected, are indirectly forced to resign and to hand over their place to a man". She does not give any credibility to parties like the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution, or the Kurdish Islamic Party that, according her version, give money to families to encourage the use of the hijab.
"The situation of women in the south of Iraq is complex. It depends on traditions and social habits much more than on the words of clerics. Women simply repeat what they have seen their mothers and grandmothers do". She clarifies, trying to make it clear that she does not put all the blame on the clerics and religion. "It is true that now, for a majority there is the possibility of studying, even in University; when there is money and parents with an open mentality. But when someone wants to marry they stay at home and have children. It is practically impossible for us to advance. We are forced to repeat a role in society that we cannot question. Women are not allowed to integrate out of their home. For many husbands and parents it is simply shameful. It is something unassumable because it makes people talk". She insists on mentioning, as a militant, the organization for which she works, theoretically independent and non-partisan, but in reality linked to the Communist Party of Iraq. "In the League of Iraqi Women we are working to question these social habits and to help women to be aware of what they can be, if they want. Many women understand this but it is the families who do not allow them to do anything".
To complete the catalogue of problems that women suffer just because they are women she insists on the importance of what is known in the West as crimes of honor, "When a woman is raped, her family murders her and the police do not allow us to question anything, to report it" She also says that this practice is "restricted to rural areas and has been nearly eradicated from urban areas. There are also women who are sold by their families to work as prostitutes in the Gulf countries as a punishment for pre-marital relations".
"I hope that the situation improves". "Even if it is obvious that she does not really believe that it will happen, she is trying to convince herself. "Iraq's greatest weakness is that we have a government who only has police and military presence, and has been without a stable electricity and water supply for nearly 20 years, despite being covered in oil". The metaphor that Iraqis will one day open their kitchen tap and oil will come out while the population dies of thirst is repeated systematically by many people. "Insufficient laws, that do not develop because no party is capable of thinking of the general interest and a society that does not want to listen, accustomed to decades of dictatorship and war. The word democracy has no meaning in Iraq".
While she explains all this she starts to play with her handbag. She finally opens it and she takes out a packet of tissues, a phone and a revolver. She plays with it as if it were any other object. Intissar carries a gun. She will not be intimidated by the militias. She will not let herself be murdered. At least not without a fight.