http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7095209.stm
Last Updated: Thursday, 15 November 2007, 03:04 GMT
Basra militants targeting women
By Mona Mahmoud and Mike Lanchin
BBC World Service
Women are being targeted amid a local power struggle
The chief of police in the southern Iraqi city of Basra has warned of a
campaign of violence against women carried out by religious extremists.
It has, Maj-Gen Abdul Jalil Khalaf said, included threats, intimidation and
even murder.
Some victims were dressed in indecent clothes by their killers or had notices
attached to them, he said.
Women interviewed by the BBC said they no longer dared venture on to Basra's
streets without strict Islamic attire.
"There is a terrible repression against women in Basra," Maj-Gen Khalaf told
the BBC.
"They kill women, leave a piece of paper on her or dress her in indecent
clothes so as to justify their horrible crimes."
Forty-two women were killed between July and September this year, although the
number dropped slightly in October, he said.
In one case, he added, a woman was killed in her home along with her
six-year-old son, who was rumoured to have been conceived in an adulterous
relationship.
Maj-Gen Khalaf, sent to Basra this year by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to
impose order in the city, said the police were often too scared to conduct
proper investigations into the killings.
"The relatives are reluctant to report the crimes for fear of a scandal or
because they despair of the police's ability to solve them," he added.
'Shot in the legs'
A female lawyer in Basra contacted by the BBC by phone from London, who asked
not to be named for fear of reprisals, said attacks on women in the city were
occurring "every two or three days".
I was waiting at the bus stop when the motorbike headed straight at me,
full speed
"Um Zeinab"
Working mother from Basra
She told the BBC about a university student who had been shot in the legs for
not wearing an Islamic headscarf, or hijab.
The lawyer also said that graffiti was painted on walls warning women to cover
their heads or "be punished".
She said she had been told by a group of men that she should be at home and get
married instead of working.
"They said to me: 'If anyone's willing to offer a good price for you, we
wouldn't think twice about selling you'," she said.
"When they see a woman going out to work and being successful, I'm sorry, but
they feel inferior to her."
'Killed before their kids'
A mother-of-six and government employee in Basra, who wished to be identified
only as Um Zeinab, told the BBC she had almost been run down by a motorcyclist
one day while waiting for her bus to work.
We warn against immodest dress. Violators will be punished. God is witness
that we have conveyed the message
Message written on a Basra wall
"I was wearing a shirt with a skirt and some make-up, as I usually do," she
said.
"I was waiting at the bus stop when the motorbike headed straight at me, full
speed."
Luckily, the motorcyclist skidded and fell before reaching her.
She said she had heard of other women attacked but who had not been as lucky.
"Two women were killed in al-Makal district two days ago. People said they had
received warnings before and then gunmen came to their homes and killed them,
one in front of their kids."
Warring factions
Given the continuing power struggle in Basra between rival Shia militias, it
was perhaps understandable that Gen Khalaf would not be drawn into naming
names.
He blamed "dangerous criminals" trying to undermine stability in the city.
He also said that repression against women had been going on while British
forces were still in the city, prior to their withdrawal to Basra airport in
September.
Others were more direct in pointing the finger of blame at the rival Shia
militias, known to have infiltrated the police and vying for control of Basra.
Um Zeinab called them "dark, fundamentalist extremists".
A spokesman for one of the largest Shia groups, the Sadrists of the radical
cleric Moqtada Sadr, told the BBC that its members did not attack women or try
to enforce Islamic law on women by violence.
But he did not rule out that others were doing so.
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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7095209.stm
Published: 2007/11/15 03:04:06 GMT
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