Since 1952, when it was founded, the Iraqi Women's League (IWL) has played a significant role in the struggle against tyranny and oppression in Iraq.  The IWL has lost so many of our dear Iraqi sisters, who fell victim to ruthless political and gender-related repression in our country.  The IWL has members of different religions including Muslim (Shiite and Sunni), Christian, Baptist, Jewish and others.  Membership is open to all Iraqi women regardless of their ethnicity, disability, and political beliefs. 

The years of Ba'ath Party rule engraved on our sisters the real meaning of fascism and dictatorial tyranny.  After the 1958 Revolution, we proposed and won laws which gave employment, education and inheritance rights to women.  A major achievement was the introduction of a progressive Marital Act.  The Ba'ath regime abolished these laws and all the laws won in the revolution.  An example of the repression was that women forced into prostitution because of poverty, and others accused of being prostitutes, could be beheaded.  Polygamy was introduced, which further undermined women's position.  Many of our members were executed or disappeared -- we are still in the dark as to their whereabouts.  Thousands were tortured, raped and imprisoned, just for being members of our women's movement.  The remains of some of our IWL sisters were recently uncovered by their surviving relatives in the mass graves of Iraqi victims. 

Regime's Wars

This regime was responsible for subjecting our country to three horrendous wars in the last 20 years.  The eight years of the Iran/Iraq War led to the first US intervention in the Gulf region, in the form of the Sixth Fleet.  It's well known that many of the deadly weapons used in that war came from the USA.  The current US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was personal delegate to Saddam Hussain in the 1980s. 

The second Gulf War (Saddam's invasion of Kuwait) resulted in the planting of US military bases all over the countries of the Arabian Gulf.  In the closing days of that war, the USA played an important role in helping Saddam to crush our People's Uprising against the Ba'athist regime.  Our people were massacred under the noses of the US military, which even allowed Saddam to use massive air power, in contravention of UN resolutions.  The "secret" mass graves of the victims of the 1991 repression bear witness to US collusion in Saddam's crimes.

During the third Gulf War of 2003, Saddam finally surrendered the whole of our country to US occupation.  The Iraqi people paid a heavy price for these wars.  In the final reckoning our people have experienced a catastrophe.  This calamity is demonstrated in the destruction of our infrastructure, our cultural, educational and health resources, including the national health service, the total collapse of our economy, and the hunger and impoverishment of our people.  This includes the great loss of innocent lives, from the first Gulf War to the 12 years of unjust economic sanctions against our people.  Hundreds of thousands died in these wars.

US & UK Invasion

The US and the UK launched this invasion of Iraq under false pretexts, such as the danger from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.  Many weeks after the invasion, they have still not produced a shred of evidence to support their claims.  Saddam's sudden surrender of Baghdad is now looking more and more like the final dirty pact of betrayal between the dictator and the US. 

We the Iraqi people, who were the victims of a fascist dictatorship, have now become the victims of an imperialist occupation.  We have lost our sovereignty.  We are denied the right to elect our own government.  We are denied the right to have an army that can defend us.  We are at the mercy of every criminal, vandal and aggressor who wishes to rob us.

We fear the threat of fundamentalist religious movements, which an occupying army inspires, and which undermine women's status and violate everyone's human rights.  Religion must not interfere in politics and in the political system in Iraq.

The Iraqi people have not been liberated by the US.  We have been subjected to a barbaric attack against our cultural, economic and national institutions, through wanton destruction of our civilisation, in order to deny us the hope of freedom and a democratic future. 

Women in Post War Iraq

Women are living in a particularly dangerous environment.  They cannot leave their homes even during daytime: women are not seen on the street unless accompanied by men.  Mothers are fearful of leaving their daughters at school.  Male US soldiers search women at checkpoints, which is itself a form of rape; and soldiers are sexually assaulting women in other circumstances.  No soldiers have been disciplined for these grave offences.  This behaviour is characteristic of occupying armies.

The first people to suffer economically are women and children.  The message coming from Iraq is: We have no water, gas, electricity, food, and the invaders are humiliating us.  People who are desperate from shortage of food and other essentials have been forced to steal.  Nothing has been done to ensure that people have work and therefore an income to feed themselves and their families.

We in the IWL have opposed this barbaric war on the Iraqi people from the outset.  Our people need peace and solidarity, not military bombardment.  We have fought and died for liberation from dictatorial tyranny.  But this noble aim could not be achieved through military aggression and colonial enslavement.  This latest war has proved that the policies of the "War Coalition" have not made the world any safer, nor have they provided a better life for the Iraqi people.  It was to achieve secret imperial ambitions that the Saddam regime was overthrown, and replaced with a foreign military rule.  This intervention prevented the Iraqi people themselves from overthrowing the Saddam Hussein regime and reclaiming their country, including the oil wealth.  If the Saddam dictatorship had not been armed and supported by the US for years, we could have got rid of him much earlier.

The Invaders and Their Promises

The War Coalition reneged on all their earlier promises to hold elections or hand over power to an Iraqi authority.  But our people have not remained silent in the face of this calamity.  In mass rallies all over occupied Iraq, millions of women and men are calling for freedom, security, democracy and national sovereignty.  They want to elect their leaders and run their own country.  Yet this fact has been hidden from world public opinion.  This censorship contributed to the passing of the UN resolution that legalises and perpetuates military occupation in Iraq. 

"Reconstruction of Iraq" is now a euphemism for the daylight robbery of our resources.  The US colonial governor Bremer is handing out contracts worth billions of dollars to Bush's cronies and other multinational firms, while the basic services, like clean water and electricity, have not yet been restored.  And who will own what is rebuilt?

Bearing this reality in mind, we the Iraqi Women's League in Britain demand:

1. The US and UK must end their occupation and the UN must set up an interim administration.  The UN must be in charge of delivering humanitarian aid.
2. Food and safe water must urgently be provided.  This should be given not to heads of household who are often men, but directly to each individual, including women, the primary carers.  Priority must be given to breastfeeding mothers.  Baby milk formula must not be provided in aid packages as it may result in the illness and death of babies due to polluted drinking water..
3. Medical supplies must be urgently provided, based on what Iraqi nurses and doctors say is needed; rather than allowing the pharmaceutical companies to decide what they want to sell.
4. Water facilities, electricity and telephone lines must be restored with the same speed as weapons and bombs are provided when the military orders them.
5. It is the responsibility occupying forces the mark-off and the decontamination of areas and buildings effected by the Depleted Uranium.  The urgent clean-up of cluster bombs and depleted uranium must be paid for by those responsible for unleashing this deadly pollution which will otherwise kill and maim particularly children and unborn babies for generations to come.  Dealing with this attack on our communities massively increases women's suffering and workload.
6. A welfare system must be initiated, as people are now without an income and the most vulnerable, such as single mothers and their children, the elderly and those with disabilities, are the first to suffer.
7. The reconstruction must be carried out by Iraqi people themselves with the active support of the UN, and the support of all who have claimed concern for the Iraqi people under the Saddam dictatorship.
8. The reconstruction must be paid for not by the Iraqi people but by the countries that bombed and destroyed the Iraqi infrastructure: sewage works, roads, electricity plants, hospitals, schools, government buildings (except the Oil Ministry), etc.  The oil revenue must not be used to pay for reconstruction because it is required for the well being of the Iraqi people who have suffered so much and who have not benefited from their own resources for many decades.
9. The Iraqi people must not pay for the wars and the other crimes of Saddam Hussein, especially since he was enabled to wage wars by extremely profitable arms sales mainly from the US.  The debts and their arrears he incurred are therefore not the debts of the Iraqi people and must not be paid by them.
10. We hold the US responsible for all that was stolen on their watch and we demand the return of all the stolen antiquities, monuments, goods, gold and money.
11. A date must be set now for free elections under the supervision of the UN.  No leaders are to be imposed from outside.  The Iraqi people must write their own constitution.
12. Only Iraqi women's organisations in Iraq have a right to speak in the name of our Iraqi women and voice their demands.  No women from abroad are to be despatched into Iraq to speak for Iraqi women.
13. Protection of women's rights according to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention for the Prevention of Violence Against women and the UN Convention on the Rights of the child.
14. The right to full citizenship for people returning to Iraq must be ensured.
15. The right of return must be assured for all displaced, deported women, children, men and their families. 
16. No forced return of Iraqi exiles.  No deportation to Iraq.  The right not to return must be ensured.
17. The systematic harassment and assault on the civilian population by the occupying forces at military checkpoints, including the humiliating searches of Iraqi women by US and UK male soldiers must stop.
18. An independent enquiry into the coalition deliberate bombing of residential areas.
19. Leading members of the Iraqi Ba'ath party must not be put back into government by the occupying forces.  They must be put on trial for crimes against humanity.
20. The British Government to publish in full both the evidence it holds, and its sources, and the legal advice it received for the justification of this unprovoked war. 

We ask that you and your organisation consider our demands and endorse them to strengthen Iraqi women's hand in the face of the new repression by the foreign invaders.