OneWorld.net (U.S.)

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb 23 (OneWorld) - Nearly two years after the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, life for Iraqi women has not improved and may actually have deteriorated in some respects, according to a new report released Tuesday by Amnesty International.

Women and girls in Iraq still live in fear of violence, including killings, abductions and rapes, amid ongoing civil conflict and rampant crime, according to the report, entitled "Decades of Suffering."

They also face a raft of discriminatory laws and practices that deny them equal justice or protection from violence in the family and community, and in some cases, women rights activists have been singled out for attack by Iraqi insurgents and conservative Muslims, according to the report, which is part of Amnesty's global Stop Violence Against Women campaign.

"Iraqi authorities must introduce concrete measures to protect women," said Abdel Salam Sidahmed, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Programs. "They must send a clear message that violence against women will not be tolerated by investigating all allegations of abuse against women and by bringing those responsible to justice, no matter what their affiliation."

The report also cited several cases in which U.S. troops were implicated in abuse, including beatings, threats of rape, and humiliating treatment. "Women have been subjected to sexual threats by members of the U.S.-led forces and some detained by U.S. forces have been sexually abused, possibly raped," according to the report.

The report comes amid negotiations for the creation of a new government following the Jan. 30 elections and ongoing speculation over to what extent Islamic law will guide the drafting of Iraq's constitution by the national assembly.

The religiously conservative United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which won a slight majority of seats in the assembly, has taken the position that the constitution should be based on Islamic law. If rigorously applied, that could mean that women's rights to child custody and inheritance, among other issues, could be negatively affected.

On the other hand, the UIA's candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, has indicated he strongly opposes Saudi-like restrictions on women's rights, noting that his wife is a full-time medical doctor. "She goes to the hospital and cuts open people's abdomens," he told the Boston Globe last week. "How could I support a law that says she can't drive a car? It's not logical."

"Iraqi authorities must ensure that the new constitution and all Iraqi legislation contain prohibitions to redress all forms of discrimination and gender-based violence against women," said Sidahmed.

The new report, which covers the plight of Iraqi women during much of the 20th century, as well as the last five years, notes that women who were dissidents, relatives of dissidents, or members of persecuted ethnic or religious groups, suffered gender-specific abuses under the Hussein, including rape and other forms of sexual violence.

In addition, the Iran-Iraq War (1980-89) and the subsequent 1991 Gulf War resulted in widowhood for tens of thousands of women, many of whom were reduced to abject poverty. During the 1990s, when Iraq was under a strict sanctions regimes, the mortality rate for pregnant women and mothers increased, while the mortality rate for children under five became among the worst in the world.

As Hussein relied increasingly on tribal sheikhs to maintain his rule during this period, the status of women also deteriorated as traditional defenses for violence against women were reasserted. Many women were subject to assault and even murder by male relatives if they were accused of behavior that, in the assailants' view, brought dishonor to the family.

After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, these practices have continued, despite the formation of numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) dedicated to upholding women's rights and fighting abuses. Their one major victory--preventing an attempt to amend the Personal Status Law to place certain family matters under the control of religious authorities--was in part made possible by the intervention of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

Whether women's rights activists can prevent a similar move under the new government remains to be seen, however.

Just before the formal CPA handover to the interim Iraqi government in June last year, some 350 delegates to a women's rights convention in Baghdad issued a series of demands, including the disarmament of armed groups and the prosecution of U.S. and other foreign soldiers responsible for human rights abuses committed in Iraq.

The delegates also called for support for women survivors of family violence, in part through the creation of shelters for women and legislation to punish those responsible, and the assurance that women will gain equal representation in political decision-making.

Initial plans to require that half of all political candidates be women, however, were eventually abandoned in the run-up to last month's elections. Ultimately, parties were required to reserve only 20 percent of their lists for women candidates.

But the report stressed that the ongoing crime and violence represented a continuing and immediate threat to girls and women. "The lawlessness and increased killings, abductions and rapes...have restricted women's freedom of movement and their ability to go to school or to work," the report said.