THE WOMEN’S CONTINGENT LED BY THE IRAQI WOMEN’S LEAGUE SAYS

NO OCCUPATION

The Iraqi Women’s League-UK appeals to all women and women’s organizations to join our Women’s Contingent at the Anti-Occupation march on Saturday 27th Sept, 2003 to demand the end of the US/UK occupation of Iraq. How dare the US presume that they can oversee the writing of our constitution!


Iraqi Women's League leading the women's contingent, London, 27 Sept

We demand that:

·     The UN plays a leading role in the post-Saddam period, ensuring the urgent reconstruction of Iraq.

·     The Iraqi people are enabled to organise our own security and stability. Essential rebuilding must be paid for by those who have bombed our water supply, hospitals, and other infrastructure.

·     The Iraqi people must not be prevented from establishing our own federal democratic regime in which we can practise our complete freedom and independence.

·     The outrageous sell-off of Iraqi resources must stop immediately, and all barriers to the sovereignty and integrity of Iraq must be removed.

·     Saddam and all his gang must be put on trial.  


Iraqi Women's League Press Conference at Crossroads Women's Centre 22 Sept


A member of the Iraqi Women's League speaking in Hyde Park before the march
Many of us have family members living in Iraq, who tell us of the unbearable suffering of all Iraqis - hundreds are being killed each week and many more are dying from malnutrition, dirty water and the effects of depleted uranium.  But everyone knows from long experience that women are always more vulnerable to occupying armies.  Women have given up going out to work because the streets are not safe.  Women are harassed at military checkpoints, just as Palestinian women are, against the traditional treatment of women.  The message coming from Iraqi women is: We have no security, no water, no gas, no electricity, no medicine, little or no food at prices we can afford.  (The occupying armies have plenty of food, electricity, etc.) 

Unemployment is 70%.  Women the carers must work hardest trying to ensure everyone’s survival despite the lack of basic necessities.

We call on women to march with us to make women’s survival work, deprivation, vulnerability, struggle and demands visible.  Only when women’s situation is visible, is the real cost of war and occupation truly known and understood. 

We demand a new beginning for the Iraqi people in general and Iraqi women in particular – women as mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, who suffered the consequences for themselves and their families of three brutal wars and many years of dictatorship.  A Women’s Contingent of the national march will put added pressure on the occupying forces to leave, for the destruction and killing to stop, and for the rebuilding of Iraqi society to begin. 

We extend our heartfelt support to women in other countries, including in Palestine and Afghanistan, who are also suffering the consequences of war and occupation.  


Speaker from the African Liberation Support Campaign


Speaker from Women of Colour - WinWages

The media have recently uncovered the reality of the Saddam Hussein regime by showing mass graves in which bodies even of children and the elderly were buried.  They do not mention that if the countries now occupying Iraq hadn’t armed and supported that regime as it carried out these atrocities against us, we could have got rid of him much earlier.

Women in Britain: We look forward to your solidarity, and rely on your support.  Supportive men welcome.  

Iraqi Women's League - UK 
Tel: 020 7278 5629   Fax: 020 7833 3970  Email: lppc@ukonline.co.uk

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