[Published here on December 15, 2019]
Baghdad (AFP) – At 16, Maram is as old as the political system she and fellow Iraqi youth are railing against. But the spunky teen has her own way of protesting: inking tattoos.
Women
‘Revenge porn,’ leaked selfies: sextortion spreads in Iraq | AFP
[Published here on November 20, 2019]
Baghdad (AFP) – The threat came by anonymous Instagram message one late Iraqi evening, making Hala’s blood run cold: “I’ve got all your pictures and recordings. Shall I send them to your dad?”
Men still missing, Yazidi women stitch together incomes after IS | AFP
[Published here July 14, 2019]
On the floor of her stuffy, dimly-lit tent in Iraq, Yazidi survivor Layleh Shemmo nimbly tugs floral pink fabric through her sewing machine, stitching together a living for her broken family.
Agony of Yazidi women torn between IS kids, or return home | AFP
[Published here July 14, 2019]
Baadre (Iraq) (AFP) – Freed after years in jihadist captivity, Jihan faced an agonising ultimatum: abandon her three small children fathered by an Islamic State fighter or risk being shunned by her community.
Born under IS, sick Iraqi children left undocumented, untreated | AFP
[Published here May 16, 2019]
Laylan (Iraq) (AFP) – No documents? No doctor. Without state-issued IDs, Iraqi mothers struggle to have children born under the now-defeated Islamic State group treated for conditions ranging from asthma to epilepsy.
Yazidi doctor soldiers on in mental battle against IS | AFP
[Published here March 13, 2019]
Dohuk (Iraq) (AFP) – The military fight against the Islamic State group may be nearing an end, but one Yazidi doctor treating survivors is soldiering on against unseen scars the jihadists carved into her community.
In Kurdish Iraq, women strive to end genital mutilation | AFP
[Published here January 2, 2019]
Dark skies were threatening rain over the Kurdish village in northern Iraq, but one woman refused to budge from outside the front door. Inside were two girls at risk of genital mutilation.
Lebanon activists ramp up pressure on reviled rape law | AFP
[Published here on April 22, 2017]
Beirut (AFP) – Lebanese activists ramped up their campaign to scrap a controversial law allowing rapists who marry their victims to go free, with a dramatic installation on Saturday along Beirut’s sunny seaside.
For Syrian women under siege, a special struggle: periods | AFP
[Published here on October 28, 2016]
Beirut (AFP) – Like many women, Huda dreads her menstrual period every month. But it isn’t simply inconvenient or painful: She lives under siege near Syria’s Damascus, without sanitary pads or even clean water.
Meet Estayqazat, Syria’s online feminist movement | Al-Monitor
[Published here March 16, 2015]
“Tashtoush.”
“Cuckoo.”
“Nanoush.”
These are but a few of the names that, according to a daring animated film based on real interviews, Syrian women give to their vaginas. This is the work of Estayqazat, a self-described online Syrian feminist movement focusing on the body, sex and sexuality of Syrian women. With a name that translates to “She has awoken” in Arabic, the group’s goal is ambitious: to inspire a feminist movement in war-ravaged Syria through online videos and testimonies.
