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The U.S. Occupation and Rising Religious Extremism: The Double Threat to Women in Iraq

By Anissa Hélie

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On February 8, 2005, the international feminist and anti-militarist network Women in Black (WIB) launched an urgent appeal for the immediate liberation of Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist and WIB activist, who had been kidnapped in Iraq by a militant Islamist group (and who was later shot by U.S. forces as she was en route to safety). Three days after the appeal, various WIB groups around the world had mobilized, holding 463 silent vigils across several continents. While this was an impressive display of both the efficiency and strength of women's global solidarity, the incident remains just a snapshot of the mounting acts of violence against women in Iraq.

Anissa Hélie is a feminist historian by training and an activist by choice. In 2005 she was a recipient of a research/teaching Ford Foundation Fellowship at the Five Colleges, Inc.Women Living Under Muslim Laws since its inception in 1984.