BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture.

"Fear, fear is always there," says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. "We don't know who to be afraid of. Maybe it's a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I don't know who to be afraid of."

Her fear is justified. Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year -- 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings" and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN, the news branch of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

One glance through the police file is enough to understand the consequences. Basra's police chief, Gen. Abdul Jalil Khalaf, flips through the file, pointing to one unsolved case after another.  
"I think so far, we have been unable to tackle this problem properly," he says. "There are many motives for these crimes and parties involved in killing women, by strangling, beheading, chopping off their hands, legs, heads."

"When I came to Basra a year ago," he says, "two women were killed in front of their kids. Their blood was flowing in front of their kids, they were crying. Another woman was killed in front of her 6-year-old son, another in front of her 11-year-old child, and yet another who was pregnant."
The killers enforcing their own version of Islamic justice are rarely caught, while women live in fear.

Boldly splattered in red paint just outside the main downtown market, a chilling sign reads: "We warn against not wearing a headscarf and wearing makeup. Those who do not abide by this will be punished. God is our witness, we have notified you."

The attacks on the women of Basra have intensified since British forces withdrew to their base at the airport back in September, police say. Iraqi security forces took over after British troops pulled back, but are heavily infiltrated by militias.

And tracking the perpetrators of these crimes is nearly impossible, Khalaf says, adding that he doesn't have control of the thousands of policemen and officers.

"We're trying to trace crimes carried out by an anonymous enemy," he says.

Amnesty International has raised concern about the increasing violence toward women in Iraq, saying abductions, rapes and "honor killings" are on the rise.

"Politically active women, those who did not follow a strict dress code, and women [who are] human rights defenders were increasingly at risk of abuses, including by armed groups and religious extremists," Amnesty said in a 2007 report.

Sometimes, it's just the color of a woman's headscarf that can draw unwanted attention.

"One time, one of my female colleagues commented on the color of my headscarf," Safana says. "She said it would draw attention ... [and I should] avoid it and stick to colors like gray, brown and black."

This extremist ideology enrages many secular Muslim women, who say it's a misrepresentation of Islam.

Sawsan, another woman who works at a university, says the message from the radicals to women is simple: "They seem to be sending us a message to stay at home and keep your mouth shut."

"We thought there would be freedom and democracy and women would have their rights. But all the things we were promised have not come true. There is only fear and horror."

Here is the link for the story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/08/iraq.women/index.html


God .... I don't even know where to start with this.  
I mean - the thing is, I KNOW this is happening.  I've told it over and over again to the many ignorant people who chose not to believe that women are still oppressed.  I just ... it breaks my heart ... actually BREAKS me to think of these poor women believing whatever they're told and ... living in so much fear.  
What's our biggest fear here?  
How are we going to afford groceries or feed our children?  
Yes, these are legitimate issues, but there are programs to help us with these problems.  
These women wake every day thinking that they might get killed that day for saying or doing something out of place.  They have no voice, no identity ... nowhere to go.  This is their home, their country, their God and government ... and they suffer under the hand of man like no other.  
I feel like it's still the 1900's there and they need a strong female leader who will march them to overcome and be empowered.  
But how?  
How can we save these women? 
How can we teach them?  
How do we reach them?  
I feel like I'm watching a baby drown while being tied to a chair.  It's like I can't do anything!  I just want to help them ... do something, but I'm nothing but a broke, compassionate canadian female.  
I sit here and wonder if the UN is honestly doing all they can for these women.  I wonder that if it were our men out there getting tortured and beheaded and assasinated, how quickly it would be solved or saught after.
Compare ... JFK getting assisanted to this ...
JFK ONE man, regardless if he ran a country ... ONE person.
Hundreds of women.  THOUSANDS getting raped in warcrimes.  Happening everyday.  
How many people actually know that this is happening?
How much publicity are these women getting?
A small scrap of an article ... 
We're more concerned with what Britney Spears is doing or what some radical politician said ... more often than not, dealing with men rather than so many souls being killed needlessly.
Is this everyone's problem?
No.
But ... consider ... for a moment ... if it were you.  Your mom.  Your grandmother.  Your aunt, sister, lover ... wife.  Someone you cared about.  Getting murdered in this way.  
You would want justice carried out.
These women are someone's somebody too.
They deserve our compassion and tears and thoughts ... even if that's all we can do.
We can't always get our hands dirty, but .... I don't know.  I don't even know what to do.  Tomorrow another day will come and we will wake up and do our thing and we will have fun and laugh and smile and be loud and have fun and wear makeup and drive or walk to be educated possibly .... we will have freedom and opportunity.
They wake in fear, walk in fear, speak in fear, sleep in fear and eventually die in fear.
It's not fair.
It's just not.

I feel numb right now ... and empty and so very, very sad ...


Muslim women across the Middle East Nations are suffering from escalating violence. Near about 5,000 honor killings are recorded every year in these countries.

More about these "Honour Killings" in the following link:
http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/finally-honor-killings-get-a-blow-from-a-danish-court