Women’s rights in Iraq
Freelance journalist Thierry Robin has entered Iraq to cover the plight of women in post-war Iraqi society. She He wrote to me the following:
I’m a freelance reporter and a member of the ABIR (Association for the Benefit of the Iraqi Women and their Relatives) association. I will go on a trip to Iraq from 8th to 22nd of October and I will blog from Baghdad about women’s rights (in French and in English). I thought you could be interested in this initiative and that’s why I’m contacting you.
With other members of ABIR, we will bring material to a dispensary and an orphanage. We will also meet Hanaa Edward from the local NGO “Al Amal” and other persons involved in the promotion of women’s rights in Iraq. It will be an opportunity for me to make several reports with the aim of catching people’s attention about the appalling fate of Iraqi women and girls: Sexual violences, abductions and murders are widespread, preventing the women from taking part in the postwar society.
Her His blog is up, and the English version is at the bottom of the postings. Her His reporting on the needs of the sick and the dying in the woefully under-equipped Baghdad hospitals are heartbreaking. And — big surprise — the violence that the Bush administration says is getting too much attention is omnipresent.
*UPDATE* Thank to my non-existent French skills, and the sharp eyes of two of my readers, David Frazer and Amy N., I found out that Thierry is a man, not a woman. My apologies for the screw-up. Thanks for the correction, guys!