Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq

The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) campaigns for women's rights in Iraq. It says, "Women are the victims of violence and backward religious traditions in Iraq, and are in desperate need of shelter and protection from random acts of aggression".About us, OWFI website, accessed 26 Jan 2010 
The OWFI works with the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq.Worker-communist Party of Iraq and Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq celebrate May Day, Forward, No. 35, May 15 2004, p. 2, accessed 26 Jan 2010
==Activities and views==
Days prior to the US assault on Fallujah in October 2004, OWFI issued a communiqué which made the following claim:
:In the city of Falluja, at the Mujahideen congress held on October 20,2004, the Islamic criminal Abdulla al-Janabi and Falluja's Shura Council gave a fatwa (religious decree) that Mujahideen fighters should rape girls at age 10 before they are raped by Americans!Criminal acts committed by Islamists during the month of Ramadan against Women in Iraq and the Rejection and Resistance of Women against Islamic Terrorism, Communiqué of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, October 25, 2004, version placed in web archive 27 Feb 2007, accessed in web archive Jan 26 2010
In a comment piece for the Guardian, Houzan Mahmoud, OWFI's representative, writes of Iraq:
:In some places Islamists are even ordering farmers to put shorts on their female goats and sheep. And in certain street markets the display of tomatoes and cucumbers is banned due to their association with genital organs. 
:The list of terrorist atrocities that the Islamists, both pro- and anti-US, have carried out against the Iraqi people is endless. All this demonstrates the kind of regime change and "democracy" that the US invasion has brought to Iraq.Houzan Mahmoud, A symptom of Iraq's tragedy, The Guardian, 12 Jun 2006, accessed 26 Jan 2010
==Criticism==
A critique of OWFI by Tahrir Swift is hosted on the website of the group Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation. In its introduction to the critique, Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation suggests that the real purpose of groups like the OWFI is to discredit the resistance against the US-led occupation of Iraq:
:As US occupation forces inte[n]sify their attack on the people of Falluja and other areas of Iraq, a pattern is now emerging in Britain to undermine the democratic opposition to the US-led occupation. The main thrust of the campaign is to depict the resistance as being anti-women and terrorist in nature, using for this purpose unelected Iraqi trade union and women umbrella organisations.In response to allegations against the resistance by the 'Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq', Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation, undated, accessed 26 Jan 2010
==People==
*Yanar Mohammed - director and co-founderCoffee with Yanar Mohammed (Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq), Blog entry on the Stop Honour Killings website, 24 Sept 2009, accessed 26 Jan 2010
*Houzan Mahmoud - representative abroad of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in IraqRachelle Kliger, Iraqi Women Forced into Sexual Slavery, post on Houzan Mahmoud's blog, December 02, 2009
==Contact==
*Website: http://www.equalityiniraq.com/
==Notes==
Category:Middle East Watch