Update 4/12/08: Listen to Iraqi feminist leader Yanar Mohammed describe the violence facing women in her country on yesterday’s Democracy Now! Among other issues, Mohammed estimates that 20 percent of Iraqi women have turned to some form of prostitution to support their families, due to a crumbling economy and a war that has created almost one million widows. Mohammed is in the US as part of the V to the Tenth celebration this weekend in New Orleans… wish I could be there!

This stencil was found on Thompson St., NYC, during late fall 2007. Notice that the dove is carrying the bomb in its claws and a spear in its beak. At first I thought the bird was whisking the bomb away to dispose of it safely, but now I look closer and see a different story.

I am thinking of this now as recent reports on women in Iraq illuminate facts about the treatment of “the gentler sex” during this dirty war.

First: two women testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday about how they were raped by fellow employees and US soldiers while working as military contractors with KBR/Halliburton in southern Iraq. Interestingly, former CEO Dick Cheney was responsible for drafting some of the policy that is making it difficult for these survivors to seek legal accountability. According to an article in The Nation, “employees like [survivor Jamie Leigh] Jones signed away their constitutional right to a jury trial.”

Update 5/13/08: I am pleased to report that Jamie Leigh Jones’ case actually will be going to trial. Last week a Texas judge ruled that Jones would be able to take her case to court, rather than be settled in private arbitration, as her KBR contract specified. You know what they say: don’t mess with Texas…

Second: this week an article in Newsweek explores how the surge may be negatively affecting Iraqi women. Tribal militias, or the Awakening (Sahwa in Iraqi Arabic), have seized power from insurgents; but leadership seems uneven and reactionary, in particular relating to women’s issues. Some tribal sheiks have ordered women to stop driving, forced them to wear the head scarf, and even encouraged “honor killings” for women accused of having sex outside of marriage. Read more about the disintegration of women’s rights under the US occupation in Women for Women International’s 2008 Iraq Report.

Third: I was listening to Manu Chao’s latest album, and really like the song “Rainin’ in Paradize:” “In Baghdad it’s not democracy, That’s just because it’s a US country!” The video is awesome, fun, cartoon-like and serious all at once. Watch it here.