Marines, PRT aim to help Rutbah’s widows

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Women wait in line outside Rutbah’s city council building for food donated by the U.S. military. Rajwa Nasser Hibden, right, is a widow and lost her husband last fall when he went missing while traveling to the funeral for their 18-year-old son, an Iraqi policeman who was killed in a bomb blast. To her left is her 11-year-old son, Moustafa. Hibden relies on donated food and money that Moustafa and her other son, 12, earn from doing odd jobs.


Marines, PRT aim to help Rutbah’s widows
By Ashley Rowland, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, February 28, 2009

RUTBAH, Iraq — Giving a widow a sewing machine isn’t easy in this religiously conservative desert town.

First, you have to get the blessing of the town’s imam, who is worried that by creating a female–run group to distribute the sewing machines, the women will gain too much authority. Then, the all-male city council has to vote to allow the group to exist.

But the U.S. Marines stationed near Rutbah, a town of 20,000 in extreme western Iraq, have the imam on board and soon expect the council to approve a charter for the group. By helping the 200 widows of Rutbah get small loans to buy sewing machines, the women can begin selling their own scarves, clothes and bags, and, U.S. officials hope, become self-sufficient.

The problem of widows in Iraq has become widespread — according to the United Nations, during the height of the sectarian violence in 2006, nearly 100 women were widowed each day.

Now, an estimated one in 11 Iraqi women is a widow.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61025