Far Away Support
by admin on Jul.07, 2009, under Politics
Dr. Shatha Besarani wishes she could be in Iraq supporting the women who are having to go through yet another war. However, fear of being landed in prison keeps her in London, doing what she can from there. She has arranged meetings for London’s Iraqi Community Association – an association designed to help Iraqi women share with each other comfort against the fear of exile. She has also been organizing public demonstrations in an effort to get coalition forces to spare women and children in Iraq.
Her mother, Sabina Al Khatib, a leader of Iraq’s Communist Party, spent most of her life fighting to give Iraqi women a voice in that country’s government. When Saddam came to power in 1979, Al Katib was forced to flee the country, taking her family with her. She was never able to return and died five years ago in London.
“She wanted to make women aware of their rights and demanded that they be treated better in [Iraqi] society,” said Besarani, who studied medicine in Russia before settling in London 13 years ago. “I do hear her inside of me. I too want to see Iraqi women laughing and living in a good world, where they are respected and valued.”
Though she said she is not part of the Communist Party and doesn’t want to run for political office, Besarani plans to move to Iraq as soon as possible. She said her goal is to organize a conference in Baghdad to discuss women’s issues and mobilize women in the country.
Her task won’t be easy. Though Iraq has a long tradition of women’s education and employment, those gains have been eroded by decades of tyranny, poverty and war. Read on…
Hopefully in the years to come, Iraq will have peace and the chance for women to have those freedoms back.
