Yanar Mohammed
Encyclopedia
Yanar Mohammed is a prominent Iraq
i feminist who was born in Baghdad
. She is a co-founder and the director of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq
, and serves as the editor of the newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality). She is one of the most prominent women's rights campaigners in Iraq, and received the Gruber Foundation Women’s Rights Prize in 2008
, Iraq
. She was raised and lived in the city within a strongly Muslim family, and it is within this family that Yanar was first exposed to the Islamic customs that she would campaign against in later life. Yunar notes that her grandfather was a respectable man in the community, who ‘prayed five times a day, gave money to the poor, was a good judge among his community to solve disputes, and definitely deserved the honorary title of Mullah because of all his pious and devout work and also because of his extensive religious knowledge.'
Despite all this, Yanar explains, her grandfather married his ex-wife's fourteen year old younger sister and in the process was content to ‘rape, horrify and torture the innocence of a girl, a kid in her early teenage life’ Yunar claims that it was these discussions with her grandmother on this ‘forced union’ that first spurred her to take up the cause of women's rights.
Yanar attended Baghdad University from the age of 21, graduating in 1984 with a Bachelors degree in Architecture. Little is known of her life between this period and her leaving Iraq, but references have been made to her career as being an ‘architect’ prior to her work on women's rights. This would indicate that she not only trained but practised as an architect. Yunar went on to graduate from Baghdad University in 1993 with a Masters in Architecture.
Little is known of her political activities between her undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Yanar was, however, active in the Iraqi Communist Party
during this period. This is not incompatible with her later political beliefs as the Iraqi Communist Party is both secular and pro-women's rights in outlook.
It was in 1993 that her family decided to leave Iraq
and move to Canada
. Yunar herself refers to this as her family 'going in to exile.'. However, the reason for this exile is not clear. What is clear is that events in Iraq has been persistently negative for some time, with the Iran-Iraq war
, first Gulf War
, and ongoing UN sanctions and bombings in Iraq over no-fly zone breaches. It is not possible to say with any certainty if these events contributed to her family's decision to leave Iraq.
It would not be until the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that Yanar would return to Baghdad, to campaign directly for women's rights in the country. On her reasons for returning to Iraq, Yanar says ’I see Iraq going back to the times of my grandmother. I see all women in the streets wrapped up in the veil and ugly, long and shapeless dresses’.
This return to Iraq was funded by other feminist and women's rights groups in the US and UK, notably the New York women's rights group, ‘Working Committee in support of Iraq’s women’.
She also edits the feminist newsletter ‘Al-Mousawat’, which has ‘ a platform of fearless feminism against Islamic fundamentalism
and tribal patriarchal tendencies, and highlights among other violations atrocities against women resulting from the war’.
As the most recent Human Rights Watch
report on Iraq states, violence against women and girls in Iraq continues to be a serious problem. The report states that ‘ insurgent groups and militias, soldiers, and police among the perpetrators’, and that ‘"Honor" killing by family members also remains a prevalent physical threat to Iraqi women and girls. While dozens of cases were reported in 2008, few resulted in convictions.’ It is against these sorts of crimes that Yanar Mohammed has dedicated her campaigning to preventing.
Yanar has given several insights to her reasons for establishing the organization. These are often critical of the US and its involvement in Iraq, as will be discussed below. These tend to focus on the conditions of insecurity, lack of personal freedom and violence that Yanar argues women face in Iraq. To remedy this, the organization and Yanar herself have been credited with the following activities :
• Setting up women’s shelters and safe houses to protect women threatened by domestic abuse and what are referred to as honor killings.
• Ongoing activities against trafficking of young women are an effort to save them from sexual slavery or prostitution
• Running classes to teach women activists how to confront intolerance
• Regularly advocating equality for women on Iraqi radio and television
• Mohammed has also interviewed about 200 women held in prison and brought their horrible conditions to the government’s attention. Their efforts results led to saving one person from a death sentence.
Yanar herself says that the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq has been able to prevent the honor killing
of more than 30 women and has helped usher women out of Iraq when their lives have been threatened.
The work of the organization is for Yanar an ongoing struggle, and she links the violence closely to the presence of US forces that allow the conditions of sectarian violence to flourish. Speaking in 2007, Yanar says, ‘We see over the television hundreds of officials who say that they have given freedoms to women," Mohammed said. "But you look at the streets -- every single woman is veiled, she is veiled in white, in black, in colors; she cannot move freely she cannot go to her education, cannot go to work."
Speaking on the longer term prospects for women's rights Yanar said ‘Iraqi women are devastated now, and it will take us decades of struggle to regain a peaceful and civilized life’.
DIWR aims to investigate into the status of Iraqi women with a focus on Kurdistan of Iraq ‘where the absence of supremacy of law resulted in giving way to ancient tribal practices against women encouraged by recent Islamist influences’.
The activities of the committee are closely linked to the work of the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq above, indeed the latter devotes web page space for the Kurdistan campaign.
and democracy
. However, this does not mean that she supports US involvement in Iraq as a democratizing force.
Speaking in an interview in 2007, Yanar outlines her views in the US invasion and the effect it is having on Iraq:
Yanar then believes that the US occupation of Iraq is fuelling the insurgency and violence prevalent in post-2003 Iraq, which is having a detrimental effect on women's rights.
It is this kind of behaviour that leads Yanar to draw the contrast between her grandmothers treatment half a century ago referred to in the ‘early life’ section above and the regressing of the everyday experience of women in Iraq to that point.
As a result of her work on women's rights that essentially attacks what could be called ‘hard line’ interpretations of Islam, Yanar has had to receive personal security, deemed necessary after Yanar received death threats. Jaish al Sahaba
, part of the Iraqi Islamist group the Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation, sent two death threats to Yanar Mohammed in 2004. These were quoted as being directly related to Yanar’s efforts to achieve gender equality in Iraqi law. As a result she has now been provided with armed protection.
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i feminist who was born in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. She is a co-founder and the director of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq
Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq
The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq is an organization which campaigns in favour of women's rights in Iraq, and against political Islam. It was founded in 2003. Its director is Yanar Mohammed, who is also a co-founder of the organization....
, and serves as the editor of the newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality). She is one of the most prominent women's rights campaigners in Iraq, and received the Gruber Foundation Women’s Rights Prize in 2008
Early life
Yanar Mohammed was born in BaghdadBaghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. She was raised and lived in the city within a strongly Muslim family, and it is within this family that Yanar was first exposed to the Islamic customs that she would campaign against in later life. Yunar notes that her grandfather was a respectable man in the community, who ‘prayed five times a day, gave money to the poor, was a good judge among his community to solve disputes, and definitely deserved the honorary title of Mullah because of all his pious and devout work and also because of his extensive religious knowledge.'
Despite all this, Yanar explains, her grandfather married his ex-wife's fourteen year old younger sister and in the process was content to ‘rape, horrify and torture the innocence of a girl, a kid in her early teenage life’ Yunar claims that it was these discussions with her grandmother on this ‘forced union’ that first spurred her to take up the cause of women's rights.
Yanar attended Baghdad University from the age of 21, graduating in 1984 with a Bachelors degree in Architecture. Little is known of her life between this period and her leaving Iraq, but references have been made to her career as being an ‘architect’ prior to her work on women's rights. This would indicate that she not only trained but practised as an architect. Yunar went on to graduate from Baghdad University in 1993 with a Masters in Architecture.
Little is known of her political activities between her undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Yanar was, however, active in the Iraqi Communist Party
Iraqi Communist Party
Since its foundation in 1934, the Iraqi Communist Party has dominated the left in Iraqi politics. It played a fundamental role in shaping the political history of Iraq between its foundation and the 1970s. The Party was involved in many of the most important national uprisings and demonstrations...
during this period. This is not incompatible with her later political beliefs as the Iraqi Communist Party is both secular and pro-women's rights in outlook.
It was in 1993 that her family decided to leave Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and move to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Yunar herself refers to this as her family 'going in to exile.'. However, the reason for this exile is not clear. What is clear is that events in Iraq has been persistently negative for some time, with the Iran-Iraq war
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century...
, first Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, and ongoing UN sanctions and bombings in Iraq over no-fly zone breaches. It is not possible to say with any certainty if these events contributed to her family's decision to leave Iraq.
It would not be until the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that Yanar would return to Baghdad, to campaign directly for women's rights in the country. On her reasons for returning to Iraq, Yanar says ’I see Iraq going back to the times of my grandmother. I see all women in the streets wrapped up in the veil and ugly, long and shapeless dresses’.
This return to Iraq was funded by other feminist and women's rights groups in the US and UK, notably the New York women's rights group, ‘Working Committee in support of Iraq’s women’.
Activities in Iraq since 2003
Upon her return to Iraq, Yanar Mohammed founded several groups to promote the rights of women in post-Saddam Iraq. In particular, Yana established the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and the Committee for the Defence of Iraqi Women’s Rights (DIWR).She also edits the feminist newsletter ‘Al-Mousawat’, which has ‘ a platform of fearless feminism against Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
and tribal patriarchal tendencies, and highlights among other violations atrocities against women resulting from the war’.
As the most recent Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
report on Iraq states, violence against women and girls in Iraq continues to be a serious problem. The report states that ‘ insurgent groups and militias, soldiers, and police among the perpetrators’, and that ‘"Honor" killing by family members also remains a prevalent physical threat to Iraqi women and girls. While dozens of cases were reported in 2008, few resulted in convictions.’ It is against these sorts of crimes that Yanar Mohammed has dedicated her campaigning to preventing.
Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq
The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq was established by Yanar Mohammed in 2003. As of 2009 she remains co-director of the organization. This group has been active in supporting women’s rights in the post US-led invasion since 2003, and it is as a direct result of her work on the group that Yanar was awarded the Gruber Foundation Women’s Rights Prize in 2008.Yanar has given several insights to her reasons for establishing the organization. These are often critical of the US and its involvement in Iraq, as will be discussed below. These tend to focus on the conditions of insecurity, lack of personal freedom and violence that Yanar argues women face in Iraq. To remedy this, the organization and Yanar herself have been credited with the following activities :
• Setting up women’s shelters and safe houses to protect women threatened by domestic abuse and what are referred to as honor killings.
• Ongoing activities against trafficking of young women are an effort to save them from sexual slavery or prostitution
• Running classes to teach women activists how to confront intolerance
• Regularly advocating equality for women on Iraqi radio and television
• Mohammed has also interviewed about 200 women held in prison and brought their horrible conditions to the government’s attention. Their efforts results led to saving one person from a death sentence.
Yanar herself says that the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq has been able to prevent the honor killing
Honor killing
An honor killing or honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community...
of more than 30 women and has helped usher women out of Iraq when their lives have been threatened.
The work of the organization is for Yanar an ongoing struggle, and she links the violence closely to the presence of US forces that allow the conditions of sectarian violence to flourish. Speaking in 2007, Yanar says, ‘We see over the television hundreds of officials who say that they have given freedoms to women," Mohammed said. "But you look at the streets -- every single woman is veiled, she is veiled in white, in black, in colors; she cannot move freely she cannot go to her education, cannot go to work."
Speaking on the longer term prospects for women's rights Yanar said ‘Iraqi women are devastated now, and it will take us decades of struggle to regain a peaceful and civilized life’.
Committee for the Defence of Iraqis Women's Rights
Yunar Mohammed is the founder of Defense of Iraqi Women’s Rights (DWIR), which advocates full equality for Iraqi women through active involvement in political debate (gruber quote)DIWR aims to investigate into the status of Iraqi women with a focus on Kurdistan of Iraq ‘where the absence of supremacy of law resulted in giving way to ancient tribal practices against women encouraged by recent Islamist influences’.
The activities of the committee are closely linked to the work of the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq above, indeed the latter devotes web page space for the Kurdistan campaign.
Political Views
Yanar Mohammed campaigns for women's rights, and by extension her political views favour secularismSecularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
and democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
. However, this does not mean that she supports US involvement in Iraq as a democratizing force.
Criticism of US invasion of Iraq
Yanar has been strongly critical of the US invasion of Iraq, suggesting that the ‘US occupation turned the streets of Iraq into a ‘no-women zone’ Yanar has also talked of a false choice existing between occupation and political Islam, clearly preferring a third way between these two. The ‘choice’ in Iraq is between:
‘..the American occupation that is willing to do genocide, or..political Islam, that will make us live in a completely inhuman and unliberated way of life’.
Speaking in an interview in 2007, Yanar outlines her views in the US invasion and the effect it is having on Iraq:
‘..the suggestion is that the US troops should leave immediately, because we, the people of Iraq, do not agree that all the jihadists from around the world are coming to Iraq to fight this so-called US evil, and our cities are turning into an arena of fight, and all our lives are being devastated. The US troops need to leave immediately, with no conditions. And we do not accept the debate that there will be a bloodbath afterwards, because nothing is worse than the sectarian war that we are living right now, that is also a consequence of this war'.
Yanar then believes that the US occupation of Iraq is fuelling the insurgency and violence prevalent in post-2003 Iraq, which is having a detrimental effect on women's rights.
Islam
Yanar Mohammed, whilst not being anti-religion, is a strong believer in secular government. Indeed, Yanar claims that women's equality ‘can only be achieved through secular government because an Islamic government would hurt women’s rights’. For example, the 2008 Human Rights Watch Report states that women have been ‘attacked on the street for what they consider "immoral" or "un-Islamic" behavior including not wearing a headscarf’, and that ‘the threat of these attacks keeps many Iraqi women at home’.It is this kind of behaviour that leads Yanar to draw the contrast between her grandmothers treatment half a century ago referred to in the ‘early life’ section above and the regressing of the everyday experience of women in Iraq to that point.
As a result of her work on women's rights that essentially attacks what could be called ‘hard line’ interpretations of Islam, Yanar has had to receive personal security, deemed necessary after Yanar received death threats. Jaish al Sahaba
Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation
The Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation is an Iraqi resistance front comprising some 23 militia groups formed in October 2007 and led by former Iraqi vice president and deputy chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri.The formation of the coalition was...
, part of the Iraqi Islamist group the Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation, sent two death threats to Yanar Mohammed in 2004. These were quoted as being directly related to Yanar’s efforts to achieve gender equality in Iraqi law. As a result she has now been provided with armed protection.
External links
Listening
- Interview with Yanar Mohammed from Fresh Air program, May 30, 2007
Video
- Interview with Yanar Mohammed from Democracy Now! program, October 17, 2005
- Interview with Yanar Mohammed from Democracy Now! program, May 14, 2007
- Seven Years of War: Iraq Is No Different Under Obama than Bush - video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
- Interview with Yanar Mohammed (starts at 24:36) from Democracy Now! program, August 20, 2010