Sanjay Suri interviews THORAYA AHMED OBAID, executive director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. LONDON, Oct 20, 2010 (IPS) - The U.S.-led invasion and then occupation of Iraq brought a sharp setback to the rights of women in that country, UNFPA head Thoraya Obaid tells IPS in an interview.
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Q: There is a widespread perception that the position of women in Islamic societies is low. But in Iraq women had many rights, that vanished after the Americans came along.
A: I worked in Iraq for eight years until the invasion of Kuwait. We were there as a part of the Economic Commission for Western Asia, and we worked with women's groups there at that time, and certainly, by the time we left the Federation of Iraqi Women had put together the best family laws you can get from all the different sects, and also labour laws. But then the invasion came and the whole thing went apart.
When the U.S. came in, they went back to the family laws of 1958. That tells you how far they have gone back. What they did was to cancel everything that was previous. And that is not really a good judgment for women. It was quite a bit of difference.
Q: How does this square with the perception that left to themselves, Muslim societies are backward, and that the U.S is the progressive one?
A: That is a political question in many ways. There are stereotypes of Muslim countries, and Muslim women. I'm a Muslim woman, and I don't fit that stereotype. There are many like me. I come from Saudi Arabia, and see where I am right now. This is the stereotyping of a people and also of a religion, and as a result assumptions are based on such perceptions. In many ways it is perceptions that hinder Muslim women in many places.
More at:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53232
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