Extremists fuel anti-women violence in Basra

Extremists fuel anti-women violence in Basra
Report, IRIN, Nov 24, 2007

BAGHDAD (IRIN) - Anti-women violence in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, about 600 km south of the capital, Baghdad, has increased markedly in recent months and has forced women to stay indoors, police and local NGOs have said.

"Basra is facing a new type of terror which leaves at least 10 women killed monthly, some of them are later found in garbage dumps with bullet holes while others are found decapitated or mutilated," the city's police chief Maj. Gen. Abdel Jalil Khalaf told IRIN in a telephone interview.

"The perpetrators are organized gangs who work under religious cover pretending to spread instructions of Islam but they are far from this religion. They are trying to impose a life style like banning women from wearing western clothes or forcing them to wear head scarf," Khalaf said.

In September, Khalaf added, police found the body of a decapitated woman with that of her also decapitated six-year-old son lying beside her.

"We do believe that the number of murdered women is much higher as more cases go unreported by their families who fear reprisals from extremists," he added.

Speaking only on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, a woman activist with a local NGO in Basra said that a deteriorated security situation has made the province a hotbed for the extremists.


Rest of article at: http://electroniciraq.net/news/newsanalysis/Extremists_fuel_anti-women_violence_in_Basra-3251.shtml

... from NOW and other women's rights organizations on such stories is baffling and very disappointing. Not a word from them about the Arab rape victim who was sentenced to 200 lashes and prison time, either. Is NOW even relevant anymore?

How much more meek, submissive and beaten down does a woman have to BE to survive life in an Islamic country?

They're prisoners in their own homes, unable to speak to anyone except relatives, wrapped in uncomfortable robes from head to toe...and completely unable to appeal to authority for succour.

FUCK. And to think the government of Ontario actually briefly CONSIDERED Sharia as a mediation tool...ASSHOLES.