Navigating the streets of Iraq as a woman often means confronting pervasive harassment and a lack of institutional protection. Activist Sarah Jassim utilizes her Instagram platform to document and expose men who subject women to verbal abuse and obscene gestures in public places. Describing a mobile phone as a crucial weapon, she records these confrontations to create tangible evidence for victims or to publicly shame the perpetrators. One such recorded incident successfully led to the arrest of a police officer who was accused of harassing schoolgirls. However, this active documentation brings severe personal hazards, forcing Jassim to restrict her movements and spend most of her time indoors with her dog due to continuous threats.
Jassim reports receiving numerous death threats and warnings involving acid attacks for allegedly inciting public indecency by encouraging women to speak out in a restrictive society. The current Iraqi penal code lacks explicit provisions criminalizing harassment and gender-based violence, leaving victims with limited legal recourse. A UN committee on discrimination against women highlighted in a May report that gender-based violence in Iraq remains widespread and significantly under-reported. The committee urged authorities to eliminate discriminatory laws that protect rapists who marry their victims and offer lenient sentences for perpetrators of so-called honor killings.
The pursuit of justice through formal legal channels is fraught with delays and uncertainty, as illustrated by the ordeal of a mother named Amal. For roughly five years, Amal has fought in court against her ex-husband, whom she accuses of repeatedly raping their underage daughter at gunpoint. Recalling the terrifying night, Amal stated that the father placed a weapon on the bed and threatened the girl with fatal consequences if she screamed. Although Amal immediately reported the crime to the police, presenting medical documents and DNA evidence, the accused remains a fugitive from justice. Left completely on her own without family support or financial resources for legal representation, Amal has lost confidence that the courts will deliver a favorable verdict.
The vulnerability of abuse survivors in Iraq is compounded by a severe shortage of safe shelters. Facilities that did exist were largely established by an organization co-founded by prominent women's rights advocate Yanar Mohammed. Last March, Mohammed was tragically murdered by armed men outside her Baghdad residence, an assassination linked by UN human rights experts to years of online abuse and threats from extremist religious militias. Hanaa Edwar, another veteran activist who met Mohammed shortly before her death, emphasizes that women in Iraq currently face a complete absence of protective laws and justice. Mustafa Saadoon, head of the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, notes that the primary barrier is not female silence, but a system at every level that discourages victims from seeking redress.
Other survivors, such as a woman using the pseudonym Samira, share similar accounts of systemic failure and street harassment. Samira described enduring explicit content displayed on a mobile device by a fellow commuter on public transport, and another instance where a motorist stalked her for over ten minutes. When she approached nearby police officers for assistance, they claimed they lacked the authority to intervene. Fearing domestic restrictions rather than receiving institutional support, Samira keeps these incidents hidden from her family. Interior Ministry spokesman Muqdad Miri acknowledged that harassment involving police personnel does occur but carries severe penalties including dismissal and up to ten years in prison, while noting that approximately 300 sexual violence reports have been logged this year despite cultural barriers keeping many cases hidden.
