Houzan Mahmoud

Promising Democracy, Imposing Theocracy: Gender-Based Violence and the US War on Iraq

Houzan Mahmoud, Yifat Susskind — 2007-03-07T16:50:00Z

“Promising Democracy, Imposing Theocracy: Gender-Based Violence and the US War on Iraq." That's the title of the ground breaking report being released today at the UN.

The announcement follows on the heels of two high-profile cases of Sunni women allegedly raped by Shiite security forces last month.

The report documents the systematic use of violence committed by Islamist militias against Iraqi women. Methods of violence include widespread honor killings, torture, assassination and rape. The report reveals the most extensive violence against women has been committed by Shiite militias armed, trained, and financed by the United States.

The author of the report is Yifat Susskind who is here in the studio with me. Also joining us is Houzan Mahmoud. She is the International Representative of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq.

- / Democracy Now!

Denmark: Freedom of expression under attack from Islamists!

Houzan Mahmoud — 2005-11-02T12:13:20Z

Politicised religion - of whatever denomination - will leave no place for freethinking, reason, or the conscious will of humans. This is a stark truth, but one that needs to be stated. Instead of the conscious ability of human beings to shape their world, we are subordinated to an imaginary “God”. In the particular case of Islam, we are meant to live our lives according to a long dead “prophet” who has become a symbol of the oppression of women and a rigid patriarchy. (...)

Iraq must reject a constitution that enslaves women

Houzan Mahmoud — 2005-08-15T14:24:00Z

Islamic terrorism is killing and injuring Iraqi women daily, employing, among other weapons, acid attacks

Today is the deadline for Iraq's ruling political classes to agree a brand new "constitution" for the country - but don't be deceived, this is likely to be nothing but another false dawn for Iraq's women. Much of the debate over the constitution's main articles has centred on the degree to which Islam will be the source for future laws in Iraq. This spells disaster for Iraq's women, and represents a cave-in to the terrorist Islamist groups who are "committing crimes against humanity" on an almost daily basis, in the words of Amnesty International.

The constitution's drafting committee, like Iraq's legislative assembly, is dominated by religious, ethnic and tribal figures. Committee members have been pushing for Islamic Sharia law to be the sole source of the constitution and there is strong resistance to the incorporation of any human rights standards that are seen as usurping Islamic legal supremacy. (...)

- / Independent

Why I am not taking part in these phoney elections

Houzan Mahmoud — 2005-01-28T14:24:00Z

I am an Iraqi woman, and I am boycotting Sunday's elections. Women who do vote will be voting for an enslaved future. Surely, say those who support these elections, after decades of tyranny, here at last is a form of democracy, imperfect, but democracy nevertheless? (...)

- / Independent

An empty sort of freedom

Houzan Mahmoud — 2004-03-08T13:19:31Z

Women in Iraq endured untold hardships and difficulties during the past three decades of the Ba'ath regime. Although some basic rights for women, such as the right to education, employment, divorce in civil courts and custody over kids, were endorsed in the Personal Status Code, some of these legal rights were routinely violated.

The Ba'ath regime's "faithfulness campaign", an act of terrorism against women that included the summary beheading of scores of those accused of prostitution, is just one example of its brutality against women.

However, it is now almost a year after the war, which was supposed to bring "liberation" to Iraqis. Rather than an improvement in the quality of women's lives, what we have seen is widespread violence, and an escalation of violence against women. (...)