#50-22 Iraq Invasion +20 … How US control affected women’s rights

Yanar Mohammed is co-founder and Chair of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq. Founded in 2003, OWFI provides shelters, schools, jobs, a newspaper and radio programs to help and strengthen women in Iraq and advocate for their rights. Marge May, a host of the program Women’s Windows on community radio WERU-FM, interviewed Yanar in 2005.  On returning to Iraq in 2003 after years in Canada, Yanar was shocked by the massive infrastructure destruction, impunity for murderers of women, and a US-imposed political system that gave power to male leaders of sects and factions and had no room for women’s secular issues or representation. For more on OWFI today, visit owfiraq.org.