IRAQ: MADRE Denounces Sexual Violence Against Iraqi Women Protesters

A petition from MADRE, a global women's rights organization, is accusing Iraqi government security forces of sexually assaulting women to break up pro-democracy protests and demanding that officials intervene to protect the peaceful demonstrators.

MADRE's partner group, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), reported that activists were beaten, violently groped, and sexually assaulted by thousands of men who were bussed into Baghdad's Tehrir Square on June 10. Nineteen-year-old Aya Mohammad told Al Jazeera that the men called them "whores" and "prostitutes," attempted to rip off her clothes, and broke a tooth. And when Mohammad went to government security forces standing by, bleeding and bruised, they refused to help.

According to MADRE's press release, they believe that the attackers "were organized by Iraq's official security forces and were un-uniformed to keep them from being held accountable." Some of the assailants were even carrying police identification cards.

The attack on the protesters came after the Iraqi government missed its promised deadline to implement reforms, a promise that had been won from Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki during a wave of uprisings in February. Instead of the pledged reforms, the government appears to be trying to silence the opposition.

"Women have been leaders of these pro-democracy protests, in Iraq and throughout the region," stated Yifat Susskind, Executive Director of MADRE. "The attacks were not random but part of a deliberate strategy of sexual violence. It is an attempt to terrorize women who have been the catalysts for demonstrations that call for a new Iraq." MADRE is calling upon Prime Minister Al-Maliki and other Iraqi officials "to guarantee freedom of peaceful assembly and to respond to the demands of demonstrators."

MADRE is asking people from around the world to stand with their sisters and brothers peacefully demonstrating in Iraq.