IRAQ: Male gynaecologists attacked by extremists

Source: IRIN

BAGHDAD, 13 November 2007 (IRIN) - Male gynaecologists are being targeted by Islamic extremists in Iraq as they are accused of invading the privacy of women. Women’s NGOs have raised concerns as there are few women gynaecologists in the country and their male counterparts are scared to continue working.

“Because of the extremists’ religious views, doctors are scared to continue with their work and the number of women gynaecologists is very low and cannot meet the demand,” said Mayada Zuhair, spokeswoman for the Women’ Rights Association (WRA).

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Heath services in Iraq have been seriously undermined by the shortage of doctors. According to the IMA, at least 75 percent of doctors, pharmacists and nurses have left their jobs at universities, clinics and hospitals. Of these, at least 55 percent have fled abroad.

“There are days when we find more than 80 patients per doctor in our hospital, an average of 170 daily. All of them are divided among the two women gynaecologists who are left in our clinic,” said Afaf Abdul-Qahar, a gynaecologist at Karada Maternity Centre, in the capital.


Read more: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=75275

The christian version is all for invading the privacy of women.

So if the gynecologist is a woman, any exams do not constitute invasion? Conservative lunacy gone global.

Very little government, law carried out by religious extremists, people living in fear, all the educated people have fled, women and gays have no rights and can be beaten and punished at will...

Bu*h should open Iraq up so RWers can homestead there.

Meaning that religious nutters would much rather sacrifice their women than suffer "offense" of their delicate religious sensibilities.

Wow, they really do sound like American religious nutters, don't they?

This is an attack on females- Same tired BS we see in other radical areas. I predict that once we leave Iraq ( and we must) that the Radicals will take over and the women will be relegated back to being ghosts- unseen, unheard- denied medical care and education- used as incubators and milk bottles for the next generation of Extremists.

Everything Bush has touched in his life has turned to shit. Iraq was once a good place (comparatively) for women in the Middle East. Bush changed all that.

I want our troops home, but another part of me feels like the neighbor who knows the woman next door is being brutally beaten, yet says nothing. Does nothing to try and help. I am torn between a desperate wish to help my sisters in the middle east and a wish to stop the flow of blood caused in large part by my own government.

Some people here think that any complaint about these countries means siding with Bush. I say that it is easy to feel that both are horribly horribly wrong. What is needed is a third choice, but there just is not one.

:cry:

I hate the thought of abandoning Iraqi women to the religious nuts. But I suspect that most Iraqis are moderates and don't want the nuts in control any more than we do. So maybe they're wrestle control from them.

Unfortunately the nuts have the weapons and the money and often impose their brutal rule on the population thrlough intense fear. Much like Afgahnistan. People there are not majorly radical yet are helpless to fight back against the heroin-money fueled Taliban. Even the men under Taliban rule are stripped of most rights. Women have it far worse but the men are often forced to treat women in ways they do not wish to out of fear.

The enemy of my enemy is not my friend. There are MANY monsters in the world and to turn a blind eye to any of them is foolish indeed.

If I had any say in the matter our borders would be open to any woman from any of the oppressive ME countries. Especially Iraq and Afganistan.

How well would these monsters fare with no women to cook, clean or produce more monsters with? Just thinking about their situation makes me very glad to live where I live.

Sounds like they need a lot of help from the awesome powers of Super First Lady.