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Iraqi Women Confronting Isil: Protecting Women's Rights in the Context of Conflict

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Iraqi Women Confronting Isil: Protecting Women's Rights in the Context of Conflict IRAQI WOMEN CONFRONTING ISIL: PROTECTING WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN THE CONTEXT OF CONFLICT Lisa Davis* I. INTRODUCTION.......................................... 28 II. OLD PATTERNS: GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND ISIL IN IRAQ ................................................. 33 A. Sexual Violence ............................... 35 B. Honor Killings ................................ 39 C. Trafficking ................................... 46 D. Domestic Violence ............................. 52 E. Forced and Underage Marriages .................. 53 III. WHEN CONFLICT EXACERBATES ABUSES AGAINST MARGINALIZED GROUPS................................ 55 A. Women Minorities ............................. 55 B. Iraq's LGBT Community ....................... 58 * Clinical Professor of Law for the International Women's Human Rights (IWHR) Clinic at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law and Human Rights Advocacy Direc- tor for MADRE. For over fifteen years Lisa Davis has worked as an advocate for gender and human rights. She has written and reported extensively on human rights and gender issues, in- cluding on women's rights and LGBT rights, with a focus on peace building and security issues in conflict and disaster settings. She has also testified before U.S. Congress, U.K. Parliament, and international human rights bodies on gender issues. Professor Davis has authored several UN Submissions specifically on women and LGBT rights violations in Iraq. She works closely with Iraqi women and gender rights activists and has traveled to Iraq. This article draws on her writ- ten work as well as conversations and interviews with Iraqi activists. The author would like to thank J.M. Kirby for her research and editorial assistance. Thanks to Cassandra Atlas, Afarin Dadkhah and Rainy Ibrahim, Esq. for their research assistance and contributions to this article and for their commitment to working on Iraq human rights issues. The author would also like to recognize the work of Bryan Hoben Robert Hupf, and Kimberly Juszczak (along with Rainy Ibrahim) who served as the IWHR Clinic legal team on the Iraq project. Lastly and most impor- tantly the Author would like to thank Yanar Mohammed, Amir Ashour and all of the activists at the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), IraQueer, and the many other men and women human rights activists in Iraq who can't be named for safety reasons. These human rights defenders put their lives at daily risk to help those fleeing violence, torture and execution. They are the unsung heroes of Iraq. 27 28 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW [Vol. 22 IV. PROMOTING CHANGE IN THE CONTEXT OF CONFLICT: TARGETED POLICY CHANGES IN IRAQ.................. 62 A. Creating Access to Shelter....................... 63 B. Removing Barriersto Accessing Legal Identification for Women.... ............................. 68 C. Creating Access to Healthcare.................... 69 D. Exposing All Conflict-Related Human Rights Abuses ...................................... 71 E. Lifting the Ban on Independently-Run Radio Stations ..................................... 74 F. Building a National Movement ................... 75 V. CONCLUSION ............................................ 77 I. INTRODUCTION In 2014, as Iraq was undergoing a steady rise in sectarian vio- lence, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took control of several major cities.' As militants moved into the country's second largest city, Mosul, they immediately imposed their extremist agenda directly on the bodies of women, ordering them to fully cover them- selves and stay at home. 2 Within days, credible reports began emerg- ing of ISIL fighters abducting and raping women.3 ISIL militants have carried out grave human rights violations in- cluding execution, dismemberment, rape, sexual slavery, and flog- ging.4 Clerics affiliated with ISIL have issued fatwas calling for the "gifting" of women to the new Caliphate fighters, under the ISIL de- cree imposing Jihad al-Nikah. If the occupiers' mission succeeds, a large part of Iraq and Syria would be ruled by a brutal militia that uses 1. Joint Written Statement: Hum. Rts. Council, U.N. Gen. Assembly, 22d Special Sess., Sept. 1, 2014, 2, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/S-22/NGO/13 (Aug. 31, 2014). ISIL is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Islamic State (IS). 2. Joint Written Statement: Hum. Rts. Council, supra note 1, at 2. 3. Id.; see also Jeffrey Marcus, U.N. Report Details ISIS Abuse of Women and Children, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 3, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/world/middleeast/un-report-isis- abuse-women-children.html; Hajer Naili, Iraq Women's Shelter Responds to Growing Crisis, WENiews (June 19, 2014), http://womensenews.org/story/war/140618/iraq-womens-shelter-re sponds-growing-crisis. 4. Joint Written Statement: Hum. Rts. Council, supra note 1, at 2; see also Office of the High Comm'r for Hum. Rts. (OHCHR) & U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq: 6 July - 10 Sept. 2014, 5-7, 11-15; Iraq: ISIS, Militias Feed Cycle of Abuses, Hum. Rs. WATCH (Feb. 2, 2015), https://www.hrw.org/news/ 2015/02/02/iraq-isis-militias-feed-cycle-abuses. 5. Joint Written Statement: Hum. Rts. Council, supra note 1, at 2; see also ISIS Issues Orders in Mosul: Give Over Girl for "Sex Jihad," THE CLARION PROJECe (June 29, 2014), http:// www.clarionproject.org/news/isis-issues-orders-mosul-give-over-girls-sex-jihad. 2016] IRAQI WOMEN CONFRONTING ISIL 29 murder, torture, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment against those it deems as not adhering to its extremist interpretation of religion.6 ISIL's rise comes against a backdrop of long-running armed con- flicts in Iraq and Syria where gender-based violence' has been contin- uously present.' Threats posed by ISIL and other militia groups should be understood as part of a continuum of violence and discrimi- nation, in which gender rights suffer before, during, and after armed conflicts.' These conflicts have not only increased the vulnerability of thousands of displaced persons to gender-based violence, they have also further entrenched structural and cultural violence against wo- men and other marginalized persons."o While all Iraqis face insecurity caused by terrorism and civil strife, women and girls experience addi- tional, targeted abuse because of their gender." Comprehensively addressing the rights and humanitarian needs of women and girls fleeing ISIL-controlled territories requires ad- dressing pre-existing threats embedded in laws and social norms. Such a contextual analysis enables us to understand the ways that armed actors manipulate vulnerabilities created by prevailing gender-based discrimination to achieve their strategic ends. It also sheds light on sustainable solutions to long-standing human rights violations that have been exacerbated by conflict. 6. Joint Written Statement: Hum. Rts. Council, supra note 1, at 2; Rukmini Callimachi, Enslaving Young Girls, the Islamic State Builds a Vast System of Rape, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 14, 2015, Al (noting that "the ISIS leadership has emphasized a narrow and selective reading of the Quran and other religious rulings to not only justify violence, but also to elevate and celebrate each sexual assault as spiritually beneficial, even virtuous"); Yifat Susskind, What Will It Take to Stop ISIS Using Rape as a Weapon of War?, Tim GUARDIAN, Feb. 17, 2015, http:www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/feb/17/disarm-isis-rape-weapon-war. 7. The term gender-based violence in this article includes violence based on sexual orienta- tion, gender, and gender identity, and accordingly includes violence against women. See Julie Goldscheid, Gender, Neutrality, the "Violence against Women" Frame, and Transformative Re- form, 82 UMKC L. Riv. 623 (2014) for a discussion on the way gender violence is framed in law, policy, and popular rhetoric. 8. See Joint Written Statement: Hum. Rts. Council, supra note 1, at 2; Bassem Mroue, Women Stoned to Death in Syria for Adultery, HUFFINGTON POST, Aug. 9, 2014, http:// www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/09/women-stoned-adultery-syria-n_5664828.html. But see Iraq 10 Years On: Women Yet to Regain Their Place, IRIN (May 6, 2013), http://www.irinnews.org/ report/97976/iraq-10-years-on-women-yet-to-regain-their-place. 9. See Comm. on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Rep. on Gen. Recommendation No. 30 on Women in Conflict Prevention, Conflict and Post-Conflict Situ- ations, Oct. 18, 2013, J$ 34-36, U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/30 (Oct. 31, 2013). 10. See Joint Written Statement: Hum. Rts. Council, supra note 1, at 2. 11. Id. 30 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW [Vol. 22 This article is based on extensive conversations and interviews with local Iraqi women's rights activists, who are working to address and prevent gender-based violence and discrimination within the con- text of the conflict and in greater Iraq.1 2 It reflects their perspectives and strategies for addressing both immediate needs and long-term sys- temic change to enhance gender rights and protections. Local wo- men's rights organizations commonly work on critical issues in times of conflict, forging practical solutions, from law reform and implemen- tation to changing societal norms and rebuilding a more just and sus- tainable society. They are comprised of women's rights activists; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activists; jour- nalists; service providers; lawyers; judges; academics; and human rights advocates. 3 The
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