Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=8/6/03

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ / WOMEN

NUMBER=5-54155

BYLINE=DALE GAVLAK

DATELINE=BAGHDAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A leading human rights group says many Iraqi women and girls have been abducted, assaulted and raped by Iraqi men since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. The group, Human Rights Watch, has called on the coalition to do more to ensure their safety, and the coalition says it is beginning to address the issue. V-O-A's Dale Gavlak reports from Baghdad.

TEXT: Eighteen-year old Nada Shaker says her life has changed enormously since the end of the war in Iraq. She says now she can express her opinions freely, but she says at times she feels like a prisoner in her own home.

///SHAKER IN ARABIC///

Nada says she is afraid of being abducted on Baghdad's streets. She says all the girls are. So members of her family, like her father or her brother, accompany her when she goes to school.

///BEGIN OPT///

But even women accompanied by men have been attacked. An Iraqi mother, Ahlam Ahmed, says she witnessed such an incident in Baghdad in broad daylight.

///AHMED ACT///

They just stop a car, the father, and the mother, with three children - girls (inside). They pull a trigger (gun) on the driver, who is at the same time the father of the girls. They take the girls - the oldest one - from the car with money the father was carrying in his car and just disappeared.

///END ACT///

///END OPT///

Iraq expert Hania Mufti of Human Rights Watch says her group has confirmed that 25 women and girls were raped in Baghdad in May and June, and there is medical evidence to prove the claims. She says there are many other cases that seem credible but cannot be proved.

///FIRST MUFTI ACT///

Incidents of sexual assault, rape and abduction are happening as we speak.

///END ACT///

Ms. Mufti says there were also such attacks on girls and women during Saddam Hussein's time, but no reliable statistics are available. Some Iraqis blame the recent attacks on the 60 thousand criminals released by Saddam before the start of the war. Others say they are revenge attacks against prominent Baath party members - efforts to harm their families and their reputations by attacking their daughters.

Ms. Mufti says the Iraqi police need to take sex crimes more seriously.

///SECOND MUFTI ACT///

Out of the many cases we looked at only two suspects were ever detained for questioning and we aren't sure what has happened to them now.

///END ACT///

Ms. Mufti says sex crime units should be established at major police stations in Baghdad, women police officers should be recruited, and both male and female officers should be trained in how to handle traumatized women and young girls subjected to abduction and sexual abuse.

A senior official of the U-S-led coalition says there are plans for a first step.

///FIRST KERIK ACTUALITY///

Our director of program services - that is the oversight for the new training for the police throughout Iraq - has created the program.

///END ACTUALITY//

Coalition official Bernard Kerik, who is in charge of local security.

///SECOND KERIK ACTUALITY///

Every Iraqi police officer that is now on duty in Iraq that was brought back eventually will go through this three-week program. There is a part of that three-week curriculum that deals with sexual abuse, rape and how to address and deal with victims of sexual abuse and rape about issues of dignity and treating them fairly.

///END ACTUALITY///

But at Human Rights Watch, Hania Mufti says even that will not help with one aspect of the problem. She says most attacks on woman are not even reported to the police. She says the reason is that in Iraq, as in many cultures, the attacks are seen as bringing shame on the woman's family.

///THIRD MUFTI ACT///

They also face social ostracism at home. Perhaps even the risk of being outcast and even worse being subjected to additional violence from their own family members, particularly from the males for having, as they see it, brought shame on the family.

///END ACT///

Coalition official Bernard Kerik recognizes that problem, and urges Iraqis to deal with sex crimes as they would deal with any other crimes.

///THIRD KERIK ACTUALITY///

The most important thing is that we make people understand that a woman who is raped or the victim of sexual abuse is a victim. And they should be treated as a victim as any other crime victim. And that's what we are pushing toward. It is essential that women who are physically abused or sexually abused come forward to report those crimes.

///END ACT///

But that is more easily said than done. Local views of sex crimes are deeply ingrained.

///BEGIN OPT///

Iraqi translator Aseel Bayati worked with the Human Rights Watch investigator on the group's recent report on crimes against women in Baghdad. She says it was not possible to interview victims directly. But she did speak to one man who helped a nine-year-old girl just after she was raped.

///BAYATI ACT///

He found her just a few minutes after the rape. She was bleeding. He took her to the hospital and the hospital did not receive her because they are not involved in such legal processes. He took her to the police station and the police station would not file a report unless they got a medical report - crazy thing. Finally, they managed to take her to American doctors who were able to examine her and confirm the rape.

///END ACT///

///END OPT///

Human rights workers and coalition officials agree that the police must do more to help the victims of sex crimes in Iraq. But they say that until public attitudes change their work can only be partially successful. (Signed)

NEB/DG/AWP/RH/MEM