NewsLab

Violence against women seems a never ending story! Little girls abused, women beaten by their husbands or boyfriends, human trafficking for prostitution, slavery… Crime, violence, discrimination go hand by hand worldwide, but some countries are a complete nightmare for women and Iraq is starting to get included in this list.

According to news agency Reuters “more than 40 have been killed and their bodies dumped in the streets in the past five months for behaviour deemed un-Islamic” in Basra, Iraq main southern Shi’ite city. Some of the victims were killed with their children, others shot to death in execution stile.

Police do not know who the perpetrators are, but women are “convinced hardline Islamic militants are behind the killings and say they fear going out without a headscarf”. Reuters reporter read a warning painted in a street wall saying that woman who wears makeup or appears in public without veil will be punished.

After the long rule of Saddam – which allowed them to leave the chador home – Iraqi women are now under another kind of threat: the extremist’s tyranny.

Complete story available here.