Today's date: Thursday, 28 May 2009

	Ms. Rega Svensson at Sergel square in central Stockholm 8 of March, on International Women's Day © UNHCR/Roger Vikström

Iraqi women in need for help

Stockholm, March 12 (UNHCR)

On International Women's Day, a manifestation was held at Sergel square in central Stockholm calling attention to the situation of women in Iraq. The event was organized, among others, by the Association for Women´s Rights in Iraq and Artists for Peace.

Rega Svensson has grass root experience of defending women´s rights in Iraq. She originates from Northern Iraq, Kurdistan, where in the 1990´s she was active in an organization fighting against so called honour killings. Svensson says hundreds of women were murdered during that time and even more threatened. “Our organization contacted women we knew were living under a threat. We organized shelters for them and saved many lives,” she says.

In 2000, Svensson came under threat herself. She had to go into hiding and finally leave the country. She came to Sweden in 2001.

After her experiences working for women´s rights, Rega decided to write a book about the situation of women in Iraq´s Kurdistan. She published her book Help! A voice from Kurdistan! under her maiden name Rega Rauf.

Svensson says women are oppressed on a daily basis in Iraq and nobody hears their voices. That is why the book with the testimonies of some 600 women was so necessary to write. She points out that the situation of women has changed since the first edition of the book came out in 1998. On the one hand, violence against women is now considered as a social problem and the public discussion on honour killings is more open. However, according to Svensson, the security situation of women has worsened in the last years. She differentiates between the time before and after the fall of Saddam Hussein. “Saddam was a really cruel dictator, but during his dictatorship women could work, had possibilities to educate themselves and go out. Now there are no women in the streets, they are afraid to leave their homes. Women have become targets for the terror of religious fundamentalists.”