On The Liberation of Iraqi Women

From “River” over at Baghdad Burning comes this chilling account of one Iraqi woman’s charge of rape against the very forces that are supposed to be working to calm the sectarian violence that is tearing that country apart:

”As I write this, Oprah is on Channel 4 (one of the MBC channels we get on Nilesat), showing Americans how to get out of debt. Her guest speaker is telling a studio full of American women who seem to have over-shopped that they could probably do with fewer designer products. As they talk about increasing incomes and fortunes, Sabrine Al-Janabi, a young Iraqi woman, is on Al Jazeera telling how Iraqi security forces abducted her from her home and raped her. You can only see her eyes, her voice is hoarse and it keeps breaking as she speaks. In the end she tells the reporter that she can’t talk about it anymore and she covers her eyes with shame.

She might just be the bravest Iraqi woman ever. Everyone knows American forces and Iraqi security forces are raping women (and men), but this is possibly the first woman who publicly comes out and tells about it using her actual name. Hearing her tell her story physically makes my heart ache. Some people will call her a liar. Others (including pro-war Iraqis) will call her a prostitute- shame on you in advance.”

River then goes on to translate the woman’s story as she tells it to the reporter from Al Jazeera:

”They abducted her from her house in an area in southern Baghdad called Hai Al Amil. No- it wasn’t a gang. It was Iraqi peace keeping or security forces- the ones trained by Americans? You know them. She was brutally gang-raped and is now telling the story. Half her face is covered for security reasons or reasons of privacy. I translated what she said below.

“I told him, ‘I don’t have anything [I did not do anything].’ He said, 'You don’t have anything?’ One of them threw me on the ground and my head hit the tiles. He did what he did- I mean he raped me. The second one came and raped me. The third one also raped me. [Pause- sobbing] I begged them and cried, and one of them covered my mouth. [Unclear, crying] Another one of them came and said, 'Are you finished? We also want our turn.' So they answered, ‘No, an American committee came.’ They took me to the judge.

Anchorwoman: Sabrine Al Janabi said that one of the security forces videotaped/photographed her and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the rape. Another officer raped her after she saw the investigative judge.

Sabrine continuing:
“One of them, he said… I told him, ‘Please- by your father and mother- let me go.’ He said, ‘No, no- by my mother’s soul I’ll let you go- but on one condition, you give me one single thing.’ I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘[I want] to rape you.’ I told him, ‘No- I can’t.’ So he took me to a room with a weapon… It had a weapon, a Klashnikov, a small bed [Unclear], he sat me on it. So [the officer came] and told him, ‘Leave her to me.’ I swore to him on the Quran, I told him, ‘By the light of the Prophet I don’t do such things…’ He said, ‘You don’t do such things?’ I said, ‘Yes’.

[Crying] He picked up a black hose, like a pipe. He hit me on the thigh. [Crying] I told him, ‘What do you want from me? Do you want me to tell you rape me? But I can’t… I’m not one of those ***** [Prostitutes] I don’t do such things.’ So he said to me, ‘We take what we want and what we don’t want we kill. That’s that.’ [Sobbing] I can’t anymore… please, I can’t finish.”

River posted this diary, according to the time stamp on her Blog, at 1:09 AM. By 3:59PM the same day, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki had dismissed the woman’s charges of rape and even called for the accused officers to be “rewarded.”

According to a report published by the BBC, "Rape claim splits Iraq government", ”Mr. Maliki ordered an investigation into the case on Monday night, but cleared the three men hours later.” The report goes on to say, ”"Medical examinations showed the woman had not been subjected to any sexual attack," a government statement said.
"The prime minister has ordered that the honourable officers accused be rewarded," it added without elaborating.”

The medical examinations referred to in the government statement were apparently conducted in a field hospital supervised by American medical personnel. A follow-up article from the BBC that addresses the firing of a prominent Sunni official in the Maliki cabinet who has openly criticized Maliki’s handling of this situation, reports, ” Moving to quash disquiet in his mixed government, Nouri Maliki, who is Shia, also released a copy of a US medical report saying no rape had taken place.” “The document issued on Wednesday is a "theatre trauma nursing record" from Ibn Sina Hospital, located in Baghdad's international Green Zone and run by the US military.
The handwritten report says in English and Arabic that there were "no vaginal lacerations or obvious injuries". The patient's name is blanked out.
The 20-year-old woman, who made the allegation in an emotional interview with the Arabic TV network al-Jazeera, has not been identified.”

However the report goes on to say, ” The New York Times reported that a nurse, speaking on condition of anonymity, said she had treated the woman at a clinic in her neighbourhood of Amil and had seen signs of sexual and physical assault.
US military officials have neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the document. They added that they did not know how confidential medical records had ended up at the prime minister's offices.”

In her 3:59PM entry on the subject, River offers this perspective:

” No one would lie about something like this simply to undermine the Baghdad security operation. That can be done simply by calculating the dozens of dead this last week. Or by writing about the mass detentions of innocents, or how people are once again burying their valuables so that Iraqi and American troops don't steal them.

It was less than 14 hours between Sabrine's claims and Maliki's rewarding the people she accused. In 14 hours, Maliki not only established their innocence, but turned them into his own personal heroes. I wonder if Maliki would entrust the safety his own wife and daughter to these men.

This is meant to discourage other prisoners, especially women, from coming forward and making claims against Iraqi and American forces. Maliki is the stupidest man alive (well, after Bush of course…) if he believes his arrogance and callous handling of the situation will work to dismiss it from the minds of Iraqis. By doing what he is doing, he's making it more clear than ever that under his rule, under his government, vigilante justice is the only way to go. Why leave it to the security forces and police? Simply hire a militia or gang to get revenge. If he doesn't get some justice for her, her tribe will be forced to... And the Janabat (the Al Janabis) are a force to be reckoned with.
Maliki could at least pretend the rape of a young Iraqi woman is still an outrage in today’s Iraq... “

Meanwhile, in an unrelated(?) story:

” FORT CAMPBELL, Ky., Feb. 21, 2007
By KRISTIN M. HALL Associated Press Writer
________________________________________
(AP) A second U.S. soldier has pleaded guilty to the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the slaying of her family, saying he held the girl down and acted as a lookout while others took turns attacking her.

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, pleaded guilty Tuesday to four murders, rape and conspiracy to rape. The judge, Col. Stephen R. Henley, adjourned the case until Wednesday to consider the plea.

In the plea agreement read in court Tuesday, Cortez said he conspired with three other soldiers _ Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, Spc. James P. Barker and Steven D. Green, who has been discharged _ to rape 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi………..”

[UPDATE - 2/24/07]

From the Concord Monitor comes the following related story:

By Ernesto Londono
The Washington Post

February 23. 2007 8:00AM



"An Iraqi police official in the northeastern city of Tal Afar said yesterday that a military officer and three soldiers had admitted to raping a Sunni woman and recording the act with a cell phone camera.

The four soldiers told an investigative committee convened by the Iraqi Army that they sexually assaulted the woman nearly two weeks ago, according to Gen. Najem Abdullah, an Iraqi police spokesman in Tal Afar.

The soldiers' admission follows another Sunni woman's assertion this week that she had been raped in Baghdad by members of Iraq's predominately Shiite security forces. Iraq's Kurdish president and its Sunni vice president said yesterday that a judge should investigate her case, which the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has dismissed as groundless."

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue