With irrigation systems and food storage units damaged during the bombing, Iraq is not close to its pre-war production capabilities. Women feed the children first, so if there is too little food, it is the women who most often go hungry. Jewelry is their safety net. Ten years into the sanctions, they are out of jewelry, out of furniture, and out of anything to sell. One woman who lost her legs after she caught on fire cooking, had to sell her wheelchair.
Women suffer from depression, weight and hair loss, and miscarriages.
According to Dr. Manal Younis Al-Alousi, President of the General Federation of Iraqi Women, sanctions hurt women and children the hardest. The Federation, which has 1.25 million members, provides family planning services, loans for small businesses, and training programs for women. Poverty, they find, is their best method of contraception. Family planning counselors give the economic facts of life to women and girls, explaining how much it costs to raise a child. Sometimes women resort to illegal abortions because they cannot afford another child.