IRAQ: Women attacked for removing headscarves, NGO says

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IRAQ: Women attacked for removing headscarves, NGO says


BAGHDAD, 7 March (IRIN) - Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in early 2003, the number of women attacked for choosing not to wear head scarves and veils has more than tripled, according to the Women's Rights Association (WRA), a local NGO in the capital, Baghdad.

"Women are being killed because they don't wear headscarves and veils," said WRA spokeswoman Mayada Zuhair. "A life is being taken because of a simple piece of cloth, and someone should prevent more women from being killed by these ignorant people who that believe honour depends on what you're wearing."

According to WRA, there have been 80 attacks to date against women and reports of four women being killed by their families in 2005. This is compared too 22 attacks between 1999 and March 2003 and one death.

"Women's interest in using headscarves/veils in Iraq has decreased, not because they've forgotten their religion, but because, when Saddam's regime was ousted, modernism and development stood before us and everyone wanted to be part of the change," Zuhair maintained. "Not wearing the headscarf/veil is one of the characteristics of modernisation."