Women in Iraq: The Gender Impact of International Sanctions

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Since the removal of Saddam Hussein from power, Iraq has seen an explosion of violence and intimidation against women. However, as al-Jawaheri demonstrates in this original and important book, this development should not have taken people by surprise. The deterioriation of gender relations was in fact an overlooked by-product of a decade of international sanctions. Interviewing women of all different ages and backgrounds, al-Jawaheri examines the impact of the UN economic sanctions on family relations, gender violence, domestic responsibilities and employment practices. She shows that by restricting womens' ability to participate in education and in the labour force, sanctions reinforced conservative gender roles. She shows how the 2003 war and upsurge in sectarianism intensified this problem, and assesses the future prospects for womens' rights in Iraq.

Reviews

"Grounded in solid empirical research, sensitively handled and theoretically well informed, 'Women In Iraq' throws much new light on the subject...it will make an important contribution since, apart from anything else, it identifies the kinds of social damage caused by the thirteen years of sanctions on Iraq. This is all the more important in the present climate, since the specific consequences of the sanctions regime have tended to be brushed aside by participants and observers alike in much of the current debate - all the problems of Iraq prior to 2003 having been laid at the door of Saddam Husain himself. He certainly had a lot to answer for, but then, as this study shows, so do others in the international community who would prefer to try to persuade themselves and others that they had always acted in the best interests of the Iraqis." Charles Tripp, School of Oriental and African Studies."

Author Bio

Yasmin H. al-Jawaheri is an Iraqi-born writer and academic. She has a PhD in Middle East studies from the University of Exeter and a Masters in International Law from Lund University in Sweden.