http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2008/04/28/sisters-in-death-the-systemic-misogyny-of-militarism-leads-to-deaths-of-us-servicewomen-and-iraqi-civilian-women/
This article details the deaths of women within the US military, and in Iraq since the US Invasion, misleadingly called originally, “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Suspiciously, many of the women who are labeled suicides or accidental deaths show gross evidence of homicide and brutality. Even more curious is the fact that many of these women had reported being raped or harassed prior to their death. Here are some examples found in the article:
One woman, Lavena, was labeled by the Army as a suicide. She had a broken nose and teeth knocked out of her head, a distended elbow, debris from the groud on her clothes, and blood leading to the tent she allegedly burnt herself in, from a contractor’s tent nearby. She also had a “corrosive liquid poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.” The army concluded that she did this to herself.
Another woman, Tina, was found shot dead by a M-16 shot, which the Army concluded she shot herself with her toe, since the evidence showed it was physically impossible for her to shoot herself otherwise to achieve the angle of the shot. “The Army never investigated Tina’s death as a homicide, but only as a suicide.”
Women outside of the military have been “perpetrated against… in the lawless aftermath of the US Invasion.” The article tells of a 19 year old woman in Iraq who committed the “crime” of having an “unknown phone number in her cell phone.” She was killed. You can read more about her here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/barbaric-honour-killings-become-the-weapon-to-subjugate-women-in-iraq-816649.html
Basra police are said to acknowledge that “15 women a month are murdered for breaching Islamic dress codes.”
Yes, Sadaam was a ruthless dictator over Iraq (whom the US placed there)… but he was also the only thing keeping order in a war ravaged country. They had electricity and water before we invaded. What have they got now? More terrorism, less security, less resources, more disorder.
The article goes on to identify these assaults as war crimes, and says “They serve as a grisly illustration of the fundamental connection between militarism and misogynist violence.” Right on.
