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Although the overall level of violence in Iraq has decreased to a four- year low, the country has recently witnessed a sharp rise in a violent trend that alarms many Iraqis: female suicide bombings. This year the number of suicide bombings carried out by women has more than tripled to 29 attacks, say US military officials. Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups have turned to women to exploit cultural practices that do not allow men to search women. As a result, females can pass through most checkpoints in Iraq without someone so much as looking in their handbags. To combat...

Drugged girl, 15, a reluctant bomb martyr Published Date: 30 August 2008 By Tim Cocks in Baghdad RANIA is only 15, but in the past week the softly-spoken Iraqi girl has been drugged and strapped with explosives, before being arrested and thrown into a detention centre. Now she finds herself at the heart of a propaganda war waged by the Iraqi security forces against the al-Qaeda militants who tried to use her as a suicide bomber. Police arrested the teenager on Sunday in Iraq's violent Diyala province, where tADVERTISEMENThe Sunni militants are waging a bitter campaign against US and Iraqi...

Tears streaming down her face, she is confronted by police - a teenage girl apparently planning to blow herself up in front of an Iraqi school. The officers handcuffed her to a metal balustrade before moving in with extreme caution to uncover a vest full of explosives hidden under her colourful robe. The dramatic scenes were captured on a video shot by the police.-SNIP- Police in Baqouba, where the girl was caught on Sunday, said she was fitted with the vest by female relatives of her husband, whom she married five months ago. They also claimed that the girl's father...

Tears streaming down her face, she is confronted by police - a teenage girl apparently planning to blow herself up in front of an Iraqi school. The officers handcuffed her to a metal balustrade before moving in with extreme caution to uncover a vest full of explosives hidden under her colourful robe. The dramatic scenes were captured on a video shot by the police.

ANAH — The usual droning of sewing machines was absent at a textile factory when Marines with the Iraqi Women’s Engagement Team, Detachment 1, Civil Affairs Team 5, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, met with local female workers to discuss working conditions and other city matters. The IWE team had also visited the city of Rawah the previous day in an effort to give the females of that area an ear to listen too. “The goal of the IWE (program) is to give the women a chance to get together and discuss community concerns,” said Capt....

During the Northern Iraq Women’s Conference, held in the Professor Sa’ad Conference Center in Irbil, Iraq, June 4, women from the northern provinces gathered to discuss major issues affecting the Iraqi women today. Although women spoke one of three languages, they were able to effectively communicate with each other through interpreters. Photo by Spc. Karla Rodriguez Maciel. IRBIL — Many women of Iraq have endured violence, poverty and suppression due to their environment throughout the years. However, more and more women, each day are taking a stand into stopping this trend. Influential women of the northern Iraq provinces, members of...

Medics in Iraqi Kurdistan said on Saturday that they had seen a surge in violence against women in May, with both so-called "honour" killings and female suicides on the increase. "At least 14 women died in the first 10 days of May alone," a doctor told AFP in the region's second largest city of Sulaimaniyah. "Seven of them took their own lives, the other seven were murdered in still unexplained circumstances" -- apparently the victims of "honour" killings. "Over the same period, we recorded 11 attempted self-immolations. These women were so desperate they set fire to themselves," the doctor added,...

The parents of Iraqi babies with congenital heart problems are facing a dilemma: should they allow their children to be treated in Israeli hospitals when they have been brought up to believe that Israel is their mortal enemy? Hostility towards the Jewish state in Iraq is so strong that many parents refuse to travel to Tel Aviv for free life-saving hole-in-the-heart surgery. Some accept the offer but never reveal where their children were treated, even though the operation has not been available in Iraq since its leading cardiac clinic burnt down after the American-led invasion in 2003. Other parents are...

Two weeks ago, The Observer revealed how 17-year-old student Rand Abdel-Qader was beaten to death by her father after becoming infatuated with a British soldier in Basra. In this remarkable interview, Abdel-Qader Ali explains why he is unrepentant - and how police backed his actions. Afif Sarhan in Basra and Caroline Davies report * Afif Sarhan in Basra and Caroline Davies * The Observer, * Sunday May 11 2008 For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. 'If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her...

Two weeks after The Observer revealed the shocking story of Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, murdered because of her infatuation with a British solider in Basra, southern Iraq, her father is defiant. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city's Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death. Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. 'They are men and know what honour is,' he said. Rand, who was studying...

Iraqi women's committee representatives from all over Iraq sit together for a meeting regarding the needs of women and children of Iraq at the Women’s Council Social held on May 5 at the Rasheed Nahia City Center, Rasheed, Iraq. U.S. Army Photo by Pfc. Rhonda Roth-Cameron. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Representatives from four local women’s committees in the Rasheed Nahia met in Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, May 5. Among those attending the gathering were Soldiers of Multi-National Division – Center and the U.S. State Department’s embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team Baghdad-7, who helped organize the committees. Women’s issues...

The situation for women in Iraq has become critical. US forces and the Iraqi government need to take urgent action to protect them Iraqi women's organisations and international observers point to an escalating war against women in Iraq, aided by widespread chaos and lawlessness under the US occupation. In addition to violence by US troops inside and outside of prisons, women in Iraq face daily violence from militants under the guise of religion and "liberation". In Iraq's second largest city, Basra, a stronghold of conservative Shia groups, as many as 133 women were killed last year for violating "Islamic teachings"...

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2008 – Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division are working with Iraqi Army troops to help create a Daughters of Iraq program to complement the work done by the Sons of Iraq. The Iraqi women in the program would be able to search other females at security checkpoints, expanding the capabilities of the Sons of Iraq currently manning the checkpoints. The Sons of Iraq are an organization of volunteers who have united to stand against terrorists in their homeland. They have been credited with helping bring peace to much of Iraq. Steve Martinez, a law enforcement professional...

Iraqi sprinter Dana Abdul-Razzaq has dodged bullets to pursue her love of running, her determination to succeed pushing her to become Iraq's only female athlete at the Beijing Olympics. Few athletes will have faced the obstacles 21-year-old Abdul-Razzaq has overcome to reach Beijing, from a sniper's bullets to a paucity of adequate training facilities and religious and cultural opposition to female athletes. "I love running, I have the persistence to keep practising and I have ambition despite all the problems that I face," she told Reuters at Baghdad's crumbling Shaab stadium.

AL TAQADDUM — A team consisting of five female Marines from the 1st Marine Logistics Group and two female interpreters recently conducted a census patrol in a nearby town here. The Iraqi Women’s Engagement Team (IWET) was able to meet and talk with the local Iraqi females one-on-one, segregated from men. A variety of topics were discussed, from any assistance they may need to how the American military has helped them make a better way of life. “It was an eye opener,” said Sgt.Veronica Deleon, 26, a member of the IWET, from Bassett, Calif. “We realized Iraqi people are ordinary...

BAGHDAD — Iraq has captured an Al Qaida-aligned cell that recruited and deployed women for suicide operations. On March 1, Iraqi and U.S. troops raided a suspected Al Qaida safe house in Al Makhesa, in northeastern Diyala. Officials said scores of suspected women operatives recruited as suicide bombers were arrested. The women suicide cell was said to have consisted of 100 operatives. Officials said Al Qaida has increased its use of women for suicide operations. The women cell was said to have operated in the Diyala province. Officials said some of the women were recruited by their husbands for suicide...

The U.S. military announced the capture Saturday of an insurgent leader who was recruiting and training women, including his wife, to wrap themselves in explosives and blow themselves up — the latest sign that al-Qaida in Iraq plans to keep using women to carry out suicide attacks. In southern Iraq, a British airman was killed in a rocket attack on a base near Basra late Friday, said Capt. Finn Aldrich, a British military spokesman.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said Wednesday that two women used as suicide bombers in attacks earlier this month had undergone psychiatric treatment but there is no indication they had Down syndrome as Iraqi and U.S. officials initially had claimed.

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers arrested a suspected suicide bomb facilitator during a raid in the Rashid District of the Iraqi capital Feb. 9.Numerous tips led Soldiers from Company C, 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, Multi-National Division to detain the alleged extremist. He was found with five Iraqi women in a home in Doura. One of the women is suspected of being a possible suicide bomber-in-training.The man was taken to a Coalition Detention Facility for questioning. Two of the women were also detained for further questioning. At this time, there is no indication this event...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture. The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce. "Fear, fear is always there," says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. "We don't know who to be afraid of. Maybe it's a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I...

Like their colleagues across Iraq, the doctors and nurses at the Emergency Management Centre in Irbil work relentlessly. Chilura Hardi, head of women's radio station and centre Activists say self-immolation reflects Kurdish experience under Saddam The medical specialisms at this hospital are war surgery and burns. With the continuing violence in nearby Mosul and Diyala province, war surgery is in great demand. So too is the burns unit. The chief nurse, Ahmed Mohammad, has done the tour of the women's intensive care unit many times before. "This is ICU burns," he said. "We have four patients here." In the corner...

Umm Doha cuts hair and waxes eyebrows in secret from her living room because making women look pretty can get a person killed in her Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighborhood. Hard-line Muslim extremists who believe it is sinful for women to appear beautiful in public have forced many beauticians to move their trade underground. Sunni and Shiite extremists began blowing up salons roughly two years ago. They killed several stylists and bullied others into putting down their scissors and makeup brushes for good, all in an effort to stamp out what they view as the corrupting spread of Western culture. In addition...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Umm Doha cuts hair and waxes eyebrows in secret from her living room because making women look pretty can get a person killed in her Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighborhood. Hardline Muslim extremists who believe it is sinful for women to appear beautiful in public have forced many beauticians to move their trade underground. Sunni and Shiite militants began blowing up salons roughly two years ago. They killed several stylists and bullied others into putting down their scissors and makeup brushes for good, all in an effort to stamp out what they view as the corrupting spread of...

December 16, 2007     Tossed from a car and shot in cold blood   Marie Colvin in Basra   IT WAS just after 11pm and the shopkeeper was closing up for the night when a van screeched to a halt outside. The back doors flew open. “Someone inside threw a woman onto the street,” he said. “She was lying on the road but she was still alive. A man lent out and shot a machine-gun into her body.” As the van raced away, the shopkeeper ran over to her. She was aged 25 to 30 with long dark...

On her first day at Basra University this year a man came up to Zeena, a 21-year-old Christian woman, and three other Christian girls and ordered them to cover their heads with a hijab, or Islamic headscarf. “We didn't listen to him, and thought he might just be some extremist student representing only himself,” she said. The next day Zeena and two of her friends returned to class with uncovered heads. This time a man in the black clothes of the Shia militia stopped them at the entrance and took them aside. “He said, 'We asked you yesterday to wear...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2007 – Empowering Iraqi women to actively participate in reconstruction and reconciliation is critical to the country’s future, the manager of a newly formed provincial reconstruction team said today. “No society is going to be moderate where the women who represent a majority of the population are completely locked out,” Bobby Bran said. “And there’s probably no segment of society that is publically so weak but privately so strong.” Bran manages a nine-person provincial reconstruction team embedded with 214th Fires Brigade, deployed from Fort Sill, Okla., to Wasit province, southeast of Baghdad along the border with Iran....

Soham Hassan Ka-Naan, a 19-year-old double amputee, gets help standing from her brother, Khalid Hassan Ka-Naan, in their home in Al Arabia, Oct. 30. Photo by Sgt. Natalie Rostek, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs. FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Every time she puts on her shoes, walks to the market, or chases her little cousins around the house, Soham Hassan Ka-Naan will remember her 19th birthday. The young woman from Al Arabia underwent surgery to correct her two amputated legs on her birthday, Oct. 31, at the 28th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) in Baghdad. The surgery will allow...

The women received their first paychecks a few weeks ago. They paid rent, bought food, wiped out debts. But the seemingly simple transaction has left at least one woman in fear for her life, another threatened with divorce. The strict tribal and religious culture of Iraq's particularly in its western Anbar province, strongly discourages women from working outside the home and brings shame on men who allow it. "Right now, our province is safe and peaceful. But anything could shake that up and we could be in danger," says Genan, a 37-year-old mother of three who's also seven months pregnant....

RAMADI, Iraq - The women received their first paychecks a few weeks ago — about $500 for a month's work as police officers. They paid rent, bought food, wiped out debts. But the seemingly simple transaction has left at least one woman in fear for her life, another threatened with divorce. The strict tribal and religious culture of Iraq's particularly in its western Anbar province, strongly discourages women from working outside the home and brings shame on men who allow it. "Right now, our province is safe and peaceful. But anything could shake that up and we could be in...

AL FALLUJAH, Iraq (Oct. 9, 2007) -- There’s less violence on Fallujah’s streets these days, but there are still some insurgents bold enough to try to sneak weapons through one of the city’s numerous checkpoints. As the threat remains, so do the Marines who regulate inbound traffic by searching for contraband on possible smugglers. Due to the sensitivities of Arabic culture, this task, at times, requires a woman’s touch. In order to search women, Combat Logistics Battalion 8, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), provides a temporary Female Search Team upon the request of 2nd Marine Division’s Regimental Combat Team 6....

Private security guards working for an American security company have shot dead two women in Iraq, it was reported today. The guards were escorting four vehicles through central Baghdad when the two women were shot dead in the district of Karrada today.

Baghdad, 25 Sept. (AKI) - A gang of women who are part of the Mahdi army militia, loyal to radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have killed a group of Sunni Muslim women in the al-Washshash district of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. This is according to a statement released on Tuesday by the Congress of the People of Iraq, the party led by Adnan al-Dulaimi, who is also the leader of the Iraqi Accord Front, a key Sunni political bloc. "The vast campaign of forced migration by the militias of the Mahdi Army against the Sunnis in that district of...

Recently I received some news items from various places about the shift to a victory mode in Iraq. They are quite remarkable. 1) Dave Kilcullen has a long piece in Small Wars Journal, called "Anatomy of a Tribal Revolt." http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/08/anatomy-of-a-tribal-revolt/ It appears al-Qaeda's tactic, not only in Iraq but elsewhere, is to intermarry with the locals, creating kinship ties that surpass ideology, even religion! That apparently backfired in Iraq. Here are the key paragraphs: Islam, of course, is a key identity marker when dealing with non-Muslim outsiders, but when all involved are Muslim, kinship trumps religion. And in fact, most...

BAQUBAH — She carried a bag full of what she considered to be precious cargo – precious enough for her to risk her life delivering its contents. She made several trips across the Diyala River, armed only with a pistol and a few friends as body guards. This woman braved the dangers of traveling in a combat zone, where coalition forces and Iraqi security forces waged war against al-Qaida terrorists who used Baqubah as a stronghold. She couldn’t travel on the roads because of the dangers of encountering roadside bombs, or sections of the city being blocked off by military...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children -- for as little as $8 a day. Suha, 37, is a mother of three. She says her husband thinks she is cleaning houses when she leaves home. "People shouldn't criticize women, or talk badly about them," says 37-year-old Suha as she adjusts the light colored scarf she wears these days to avoid extremists who insist women cover themselves. "They all say...

An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

Magic Bullets Discovered in Sadr City by AFP PhotographerWed, Aug 15, 2007 at 9:45:56 am PSThttp://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=26666_Magic_Bullets_Discovered_in_Sadr_City_by_AFP_Photographer&onlySometimes the propaganda is so obvious it’s almost funny.An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. At least 175 people were slaughtered on Tuesday and more than 200 wounded when four suicide truck bombs targeted people from an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq, officials said. (AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)To make it even tastier, there’s another one from July 10, 2007, apparently featuring the same woman, holding...

[Note: Before we begin, a huge congratulations to Iraq for winning the Asian Cup in soccer. As an American, I felt a sense of jubilation when Iraq took the title. I have temporarily left Iraq, for my only “break” this year, and am in Singapore. Singaporeans are talking about the Iraq soccer victory today. It’s all over the news here.]Bread and a Circus, Part One Operation Arrowhead Ripper Launched on 19 June 2007 and continues today. Baqubah Iraqis and cameras are a sight. “Everyone” “knows” that Iraqi women are not to be photographed; but in reality this is situational. Some...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Roba al-Asaly fingers the sliver of gold on her necklace and explains that it reminds her of a place "that's not there anymore." ADVERTISEMENT The gold is shaped like the map of Iraq, and at a time when sectarian violence has fanned fears of civil war, it has become a gesture of defiance and of yearning for national unity. It is seen on the streets and on television. Anchorwomen wear it while reading the news on Al-Iraqiya and Al-Sharqiya, Iraqi TV stations that are secular and more tolerant of women's jewelry. "I hold on to it with...

Soldiers from 5th Battalion, 6th Iraqi Army Division rescued a kidnapped woman from a house in Karkh at approximately 4 p.m. Saturday. A woman who claimed she had been kidnapped entered their office and led the soldiers to a house nearby, where she said another kidnapped woman was inside. The soldiers raided the house and found the other woman and two kidnappers. Soldiers arrested the kidnappers and the women were released unharmed.

The women's prison in Kadhmiya, a Shiite area in Baghdad, is one of three major prisons in Iraq that house several hundred female inmates. They've been convicted of crimes such as prostitution, murder and terrorism. Some are being held pending trial. Many say they've been abused and raped.

CAMP TAJI — Assyria Village held a grand opening for a women’s center just outside the gates of Camp Taji Wednesday. The center will provide women in the small village a place to meet, sew, cook and use the center’s computers. The $230,000 building is brand new and is equipped with 12 sewing machines, 12 computers, a kitchen, office space, a back-up generator and two ovens. “This is the first building I’ve ever heard of that is just for women,” said Capt. Holly Hanson, a team leader for 414th Civil Affairs Battalion The unit is attached to the 4th Infantry...

A U.S. injustice to an invaluable Iraqi. The murder of freelance journalist Steven Vincent a year ago today made international headlines. Vincent was in Basra, completing research on his second book. He broke the story about Shia death squads; ironically, this may be what led to his death at their hands. Vincent was special. Many journalists parachuted into Iraq, talked to a handful of established contacts, and spent more time in the Green Zone than out and about. Their accounts might have been best-sellers, but they were riddled with mistakes and superficiality. Vincent’s first book In the Red Zone, in...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Four more U.S. soldiers have been charged with rape and murder and a fifth with dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman and the killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya, the military said Sunday. The five were accused Saturday following an investigation into allegations that American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division raped the teenager and killed her and three relatives at her home south of Baghdad. Ex-soldier Steven D. Green was arrested last week in North Carolina and has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and four counts...

BAGHDAD, June 4 (UPI) -- On orders of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, men in black have begun terrorizing women who do not conform to their rules, it was reported. Following a sermon by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Iraqi al-Qaida, new rules were announced regarding women's behavior, The Sunday Times of London reported. "Women cannot drive; women cannot go out after midday; women and men are not allowed to go out and walk together, they must walk separately," a local official announced. Violations will be punished sternly by men in black, all Sunni Muslims -- with punishments...

Western clothes are death sentenceNOOR and her boyfriend used to go out a lot and listen to dance in their favourite restaurant in Baghdad. The 26-year-old university lecturer also used to enjoy going window shopping at night in the city’s once-glitzy Mansour district, dressed in the latest fashions. That was before the “men in black”, the Taliban-style militias waging terror against the urban middle class, arrived in Noor’s neighbourhood, threatening to shoot, kidnap and shave the heads of anyone who challenged their draconian strictures. The militias are part of a hardline religious crackdown organised by Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the...

(AP) BAGHDAD U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday. Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday. Jassim, the mother of two children, and her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were killed by the U.S. forces, according to police Capt. Laith Mohammed and witnesses. The U.S. military said coalition troops fired at...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday. Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday. Jassim, the mother of two children, and her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were killed by the U.S. forces, according to police Capt. Laith Mohammed and witnesses. The U.S. military said coalition troops fired...

Amid the chaos and destruction that overwhelm daily life in Baghdad, many Iraqi women have been searching for a way to build a network that could harness their collective strength. But how? Joan Betros, who was working in Baghdad two years ago as the director of women's and children family television programming for Iraqi Media Network, believed she knew just such a vehicle for women - the LDS Relief Society. Launched in 1842 to serve the sick and poor, the LDS Relief Society is now one of the oldest and largest women's organization in the world. It has more than...

Some radical feminists and anti-war liberals have very short memories. It's just three years after Saddam Hussein's ouster and some would have us believe the tyrant was in fact a protector of women's rights in Iraq. That Iraq under Saddam actually had progressive, pro-women policies that are now being "rolled back" thanks to the Bush administration. A recent report by "Global Exchange" and "Code Pink" entitled "Iraqi Women Under Siege" concluded that "the occupation of Iraq has not resulted in greater equality and freedom for women" than they had under Saddam Hussein. Much of the anti-war propagandists' defense of Saddam...