Women in Iraq, from childhood, are brought up as recipients of orders and executors of them, and as servants in the home to serve the father, brother, and the family as a whole. And work, and therefore she is not entitled to participate in making responsible decisions or making decisions related to her life, such as study, work, and a partner, because she grows up losing confidence in her abilities and capabilities and obliterating her talents and creativity, because she is a female and a second-class human being according to what is approved by religion and its legislation and supported by governments.

It is necessary for a woman, at the beginning of her life, to have her choices and privileges robbed. Her admission to school and the completion of her education is dependent on the consent of the males in the family. Even the choice of majoring in study must pass with the consent of the males. As for work, this is where her tragedy begins. Working women in Iraq are subjected to great pressures:

First: Choose the type of work. She has to choose the form and type of work approved by the males in the family, whether the father, brother or husband, as there are unacceptable works under the item of social defect, for example work in beauty salons, tourist facilities, media, arts, Ministry of Health departments, Ministry of Interior departments, departments Ministry of Defense and others. This means that women in Iraq are deprived of choice in the type and form of their work.

Second: controlling its economic resources. She is economically dispossessed because of the control of either the husband, father or brother over the wages she receives from her work and the confiscation of her right to those wages.

Third: the threat of exclusion from work. A working woman is exposed to the constant threat of being expelled from work at any moment, due to her failure to carry out or her failure to perform actions imposed on her by the male men in the family, such as the allegation of negligence in domestic work, which is included among the duties entrusted exclusively to women, or the threat of exclusion due to delay in working hours. Or not sticking to a specific dress code.

The most dangerous thing that women are exposed to in Iraq and at a very high rate in our society is their constant exposure to sexual harassment, starting from the first point when they leave the house to the street and board the car heading to their place of work, as they are treated as the first and permanent physical project in society.

What she is exposed to in terms of harassment is a kind of physical and psychological harassment related to being forced to hear and bear what she does not want by everyone around her. The biggest problem is that she cannot reveal the issue of harassment, or she cannot complain because she too will be condemned and things may reach her suspension from work or Lock her up at home. And in the circumstances of the new transformation in Iraq, that is, with the end of the dictatorial regime and the beginning of the American occupation of Iraq, women in Iraq became vulnerable to kidnapping, rape and murder, which prompted many working women to leave work in order to preserve their lives. As for the pressures that women are exposed to at work, there are many, including:

First: take away its decisions. The working woman in Iraq is deprived of the decision, that is, when she assumes responsibility, she finds herself committed to the party she chose, especially since the parties control the arena and affiliations and invade everything. These decisions will expose women to exclusion or assassination.

Second: Childcare. A real and major problem faced by women working in government departments and institutions, we find that they accompany children with them to work places, and here comes the absence of the role of the state in providing assistance and stability to working mothers, as many times they are forced to leave work in order to take care of their children, as the majority of nurseries are Not all of them, which are available in the departments and institutions, lack many elements, as they lack the simplest health conditions, and lack education and entertainment programs for the child, and the atmosphere of those nurseries lacks services and neglect prevails, and the staff available in those nurseries do not fill the nursery’s need for specializations, in addition to double the wages. workers, so that the working mother is forced to leave work to take care of her children.

Third: the absence of laws. The large number of pressures and oppression that women are exposed to is due to the absence of the role of laws that protect working women, as well as the absence of the role of the state, which is not concerned with the suffering of working women.

Fourth: the type of work. Women working in production establishments suffer from major problems in the type of work they practice, because males monopolize work in the name of the nature of the body and under the pretext that women are weak and cannot engage in certain jobs, such as carpentry, blacksmithing, and others.

Fifth: Unions and Associations: Institutions and departments in Iraq lack formations such as unions or associations that specialize in addressing and solving problems facing working women, whether it is harassment by an official or unfairness at work or job level.

Sixth: Arbitrary decisions. Recently, people in many institutions and departments have been assigned to follow up on the decisions of the Ministry of State for Women’s Affairs, which imposed on women the wearing of a type of clothing under the name of modest clothing, and a good list of prohibitions. Female workers, for example in the Irrigation and Investment Department, imposed the general director of that department on women to wear the hijab and the jubbah, and he also isolated the employees from the female employees in the divisions of his department.

Seventh: Additional work. At the end of each working day for the woman and upon her return to the house, she will be waiting to do the household chores and services, such as cooking and preparing meals, washing dishes, cleaning the floor of the house, cleaning walls and windows, cleaning furniture, washing and ironing clothes, taking care of children and taking care of their daily needs, in addition to shopping and shopping. Daily essentials for the home.

From this we understand that the suffering of working women in Iraq is part of the agenda of administrative and financial corruption. Our female teachers, doctors, engineers and lawyers are all afraid and live in fear and fear of being excluded from work by males at any moment, or being drawn into religious and political disputes, and thus subjected to kidnapping and rape, and sometimes up to The matter leads to their killing, and the rest of the working women end their day between the man’s dictatorship in the home and the narcissism of the work official, and it is clear to us that the state cannot meet the demands and needs of the working woman because the state has become a burden on the work and the working woman at the same time. Socially, economically and politically, we find that the absence of the role of the state and the inability of the government to provide protection for women and their rights, based on all the obstacles that were put in their way, led to the spread of markets and institutions selling the body in Iraq. Women have become prey to the patriarchal society and the backward politics burdened them with troubles and problems that they cannot face alone. We have to provide the real support and support required for this Women in Iraq and their economic protection are heading towards collapse after the war and occupation imposed difficult social conditions on the family, and after the war left most women in Iraq truncated with education and awareness, and with the development of the world and the mechanization of technology, it became necessary to pay attention to women’s problems, and therefore the need for solutions became urgent. Via dots in below:

First: Stabilizing the economic structure of women. Abolishing the status of housewife and considering her an unemployed worker, finding laws and solutions to address the problems facing women at work and as a result of it.

Second: Laws. Activate laws to protect women and protect their rights, and cancel all decisions that contradict those laws. Enacting new laws that focus women’s equality and completely liberate them from all the restrictions built by the years of decline and backward policies.

Third: killing women. Stopping the killing of women under any pretext, and considering the killing called as washing the shame a crime of murder, and the perpetrators shall be punished with the penalty of premeditated murder.

Fourth: marriage. There should be a law declaring all marriages illegal for the state except for civil marriage. Criminalizing the forced marriage of underage girls, deeming all brokerage offices and trafficking in women illegal and punishing those working in them, including the so-called temporary marriage offices.

Fifth: Criminalizing and punishing all those who force girls to drop out of school, and finding solutions to eliminate the problems that lead to their dropping out of schools.

Sixth: beggars and vagabonds. Shelter the homeless and beggars in homes or complexes that are suitable from a humanitarian, health and social point of view, to protect their homes. He also gave them identification papers, trained them, and taught them about professions and skills in order to rehabilitate them for a life worthy of their humanity.

Seventh: Fighting all curricula, cultures, and policies that marginalize and degrade the status and role of women.

Eighth: the spread of cancerous diseases. Finding ways by the ministries, departments and specialized institutions to reduce and eliminate the spread of diseases that affect women, such as breast cancer and other diseases and cancers spread throughout Iraq, finding modern medical means to eliminate the problem of early abortion.

Ninth: Curricula. Introducing curricula on the nature of the woman’s body and the nature of human relations between men and women, holding awareness and education courses by the ministries and specialized institutions on this subject and disseminating them extensively through various media.

Finally, I want to say that we should salute women in Iraq because they are unique in facing economic, political and social problems, despite that they stick to work and are determined to do it, starting from the workers in markets and shops and ending with workers in ministries, departments and institutions, facing the danger of disease and death, and the hardships of life imposed on them Completely, but steadfast and determined to raise the flag of work to the end. Wonderful is the one who wove the threads of her day in the rhythm of pain and renewed her steps, what can we offer her, she carried on her shoulders the concerns of her family and on her arms she carried her work and creativity.