Impoverished Women Vulnerable to Extremists

Destitute women facing bleak futures in Anbar may fall prey to promises of money, revenge and martyrdom from extremists intent on destabilising Iraq, activists warn.

A sharp increase in war widows, divorcees and women deserted by their husbands, along with diminishing government support, has left more than 100,000 women in Anbar province without salaries or financial aid, according to a new report.

Many of the women have accepted lowly jobs to feed their families, local NGOs said, while most harbour deep resentment for those they believe to be responsible for the loss of their husbands or loved ones.

Provincial officials and humanitarian groups now warn that desperate women may commit terrorist acts to escape lives of destitution and shame.

"I am concerned about a large number of these women and widows in Anbar," said Khadija Omar, the women's rights representative on the Anbar provincial council. “The armed groups exploit their dire financial situation. It is known that women can do anything, even kill, to feed her children and protect them. There are terrorist groups which are using this weakness to recruit women, especially those with husbands who were killed by US forces.”

Once a hotbed of the Sunni-led insurgency, Anbar suffered for years as fighting raged between United States troops, tribal groups and extremists. While insurgents no longer control the province, its economy and security remain fragile. Opportunities for women are especially scarce.

The concern over Anbar’s women comes amid growing fears of female suicide bombings in Iraq. Last week, a woman set off explosives hidden beneath her clothing, killing more than 35 Iraqis during the holy Shia pilgrimage to Karbala. [See: Shia Pilgrim Bombing Raises Iraqi Sectarian Fears]

This week, it was reported that Samira Ahmed Jassim, a middle-aged Iraqi woman nicknamed the "Mother of Believers", lured vulnerable women in Diyala province into becoming suicide bombers. A senior Iraqi police official was quoted as saying that Jassim recruited more than 80 women and confessed to organising 28 suicide bombings across Iraq.

According to the US military, female suicide attackers carried out 32 bombings in
2009.

"The woman who has her father, brother, son or husband killed or detained, would have a desire to revenge those who did this. The recruiters exploit her desire," said Hanaa Edward, a prominent women's right activist in Baghdad.

"Or sometimes they use Islam to attract her, by convincing her that she will be a martyr and will be rewarded in heaven,” she added.

An annual report released last week by the Al-Birr Organisation, a privately-funded Fallujah-based NGO founded in 2005, reveals that there are now 130,000 widows, divorcees and abandoned women in Anbar province.

The report claims that almost 80 per cent of these women do not receive any government support.

"Many of these women are working as dressmakers, blacksmiths, farm workers, wool cleaners, shepherds, junk collectors and street vendors while others are reduced to begging in the streets in a very humiliating way," said Al-Birr secretary-general Abed Jabbar al-Alwani.

Majidah Ali, a 44-year-old widow living in Fallujah's Andalus slum, makes a living by gathering used auto parts that she sells to local mechanics.

"The last two years have made me forget that I am a woman. My body always smells of burnt lubricating oil and people now look at me as less than human. Despite the extreme difficulties, I am trying to support myself and my six children," Ali said.

"Frankly, I don't know how long I can go on like this when the government insists on overlooking our problems, closing every door in our faces and utilising us as mere slogans in their election campaigns without actually doing anything to help us."

The Al-Birr report warns that angry and impoverished women such as Ali could be recruited to assist insurgents as message carriers, weapon smugglers or suicide bombers. The report claims insurgents are eager to utilise women because they are subject to less stringent body searches.

"The [Anbar] government is looking away all the time, without even bothering to set up competent commissions to..help these women maintain their human dignity and prevent them from being lured into practices that would damage their personal integrity or jeopardise public security," Alwani said.

Deputy governor Hikmat Jassim Zaydan, who is in charge of Anbar's social security provision, admits there are problems facing the destitute women of Anbar, but notes the government organises workshops and small business programmes designed to provide jobs.

"Widows, divorcees and other disadvantaged women in Anbar present a miserable example of women crushed by extreme adversity and treated with extreme unfairness,” Zaydan said. “The monthly allowance they are offered depends on how many children each has and whether she owns the home she lives in.

"Even the highest monthly allowance they are entitled to remains too meagre to cover basic needs, given the high prices we are witnessing in the market."

Zaydan said funds have been allocated to provide for 47,000 welfare beneficiaries in Anbar, including widows, divorcees, needy children, the sick, jobless and handicapped.

"The total sum available is clearly insufficient to serve its purpose," he said. "But it has to be said that 60 per cent of those [receiving benefits] from the government's social security system are not needy enough to qualify. These are people who managed to have their names listed on the payroll when the governorate was in a state of chaos and the terrorists held full sway."

According to Zaydan, 2.5 billion dinars (2 million dollars) of Anbar's social security 2009 budget was lost through corruption. The suspects are now standing trial.

Despite the flaws in the system, he railed against NGOs suggesting that vulnerable women might be recruited into insurgent ranks, saying this was inconceivable.

"In a governorate like Anbar, most of the women in question hail from well-known tribes and have too strong a sense of social identity to allow themselves to [fall prey to the extremists]," he said.

But Elaf Muhammad, a 31-year-old Fallujah widow with three children, disagrees. Since her husband was killed by a death squad in Baghdad in 2007, she said her life has been a constant battle to feed and protect her children. She claims her family has received nothing from the government.

"I could do anything, literally anything, to make sure that my children will grow up before my eyes even if I had to cooperate with outlaws because that would be much easier for me than to part with my children or to see them starving at night," she said.

Uthman al-Mukhtar is an IWPR-trained journalist in Fallujah.