Women in Iraq: beyond the rhetoric

Abstract

At a press conference two weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq, flanked by four “Women for a Free Iraq,”1 Paula Dobriansky, then undersecretary of state for global affairs, declared: “We are at a critical point in dealing with Saddam Hussein. However this turns out, it is clear that the women of Iraq have a critical role to play in the future revival of their society.” For the Bush administration, Iraqi women would not only be “helping give birth to freedom” in the post-Saddam order.2 US officials spoke publicly about rape, torture and executions of women under Ba‘th Party rule, implicitly linking these atrocities to the necessity for US military action.