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Public Employee Press
Houzan Mahmoud speaks
out: Life in war-torn Iraq By
GARY GOFF 2nd Vice President, Local 2627 There are
no rights in Iraq for working people today, said Houzan Mahmoud, speaking
at the Manhattan campus of SUNY Stony Brook on March 5. Mahmoud represents
both the Organization of Womens Freedom in Iraq and the Federation of Workers
Councils and Unions, Iraqs second largest union group. She is currently
living in London and was in New York to testify about gender-based violence in
Iraq before the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Mahmoud
spoke at great personal risk, because she is under a fatwa, an open-ended death
sentence issued by an Islamist group from Iraqi Kurdistan, where she was born.
Women are the uncounted victims of this occupation.
Women are the uncounted victims of this occupation, Mahmoud said.
They cannot safely go out on the streets alone to buy food for their families,
she said. Daily life is very difficult. There is no security. There are no basic
services drinkable water, electricity, health care or schools. Millions
of people are out of work or have been forced to flee the Islamist militias to
refugee camps in neighboring countries. More and more women are now in
Iraqi prisons, with no legal protection or representation. They can just
come and take you out of your home, said Mahmoud. Civil society
has broken down. The government is dysfunctional, says Mahmoud, with
no real existence outside the U.S.-run Green Zone. The politicians are
heavily corrupt, stealing public money and spying on each other. Elsewhere, she
said, there is a never-ending battle among the occupying forces, the
terrorist networks and the Islamist militias and gangsters. It was not
always like this. Secularism is deeply rooted in Iraqi society, she
said. The people dont want a theocratic regime. And,
according to Mahmoud, that is the strength of the secular Federation of Workers
Councils and Unions, which includes men and women of all faiths, ethnicities,
and nationalities. Were anti-occupation,
therefore were illegal, but we still organize.
Unlike the legal unions supported by the Iraqi government and the U.S.-occupation
forces (We call them yellow unions, ), the Federation
organizes protests, conferences and strikes at least two a month,
says Mahmoud with pride. Were anti-occupation, therefore were
illegal, but we still organize. Were gaining popularity among the working
people of Iraq. In Iraq, the war has created a breeding ground
for the terrorists. They carry out all kinds of suicide bombings and
attacks, all in the name of fighting the occupation, she said. The terror
groups use the American presence as a cover to kill. Mahmoud
sees women, youth, and labor unions as the keys to restoring a dynamic secular
society in Iraq. But before that can happen, she said, the war has to end. This
war is not in the interests of the working-class in Iraq or in America.
Mahmouds presentation was sponsored by Stony Brooks Center for
Study of Working Class Life and U.S. Labor Against the War, the organization that
led the labor section of the recent anti-war marches in which many DC 37 members
participated. This article is based on Mahmouds March 5 talk and
an interview she gave Goff, which is available on line at www.local2627.org.
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