Let’s Make Every Day a March 8!
Organization for the Liberation of Women in Iraq, March 8, 2010

The Organization of Women Liberation in Iraq congratulates all women and egalitarians in Iraq and the world. International Women's Day is the day of voicing the demand of full equality between women and men, the day that millions in cities around the world get to the streets, raising banners that demand the end the violence against women and to bring down religious patriarchal and misogynist regimes. On this day calls for changing the unjust and discriminatory laws against women are raised. It is the day of showing support by all radical, socialist, egalitarian, women, equality-lovers and humanist people and communists, who have always considered equality between women and men as a main field of their struggle for a better world.

In Iraq, the election’s screams are increasing and, with it, false and dull promises are being made. However, improving the status of women is entirely absent from any electoral list. The opposite is actually true. Violence and hatred against women are on the rise. These so-called elections have brought, and will still bring, the same laws of polygamy, gender discrimination and inferiority to women in society. The education system has been privatized especially at college and university levels, leaving millions of girls to fall victims to this process. They are forced to leave school or university because they are unable to pay the tuition and maintain the high cost of studying. They become victims of violence and patriarchy.

The so-called elections in Iraq will produce the same medieval religious groups, the same parties that have turned the lives of women into unbearable hell. The Islamists and nationalists have filled Iraq’s hospitals with dead bodies, many of which are of women. Thousands of women have committed suicide by self-immolation in order to escape the misery of Islamic and tribal gangs, while thousands more are subjected to harsh living conditions with no support. Prostitution has become a wide-spread phenomenon in Iraqi society. The same Islamic and nationalist groups and parties have become agencies for prostitution to satisfy the desires of their leaders.

These words are bitter reality. They point to the fact that women must stand up to these religious, nationalist and tribal forces which do not want to recognize equality for women, but to consider them as “creatures” of men’s ribs!

On this day, March 8, women in Iraq raise a big no in the face of this disastrous situation and join forces with those who advocate women's full equality; that defend women's humanity, progressives who are capable of building a civilized, humane and prosperous society for all its members.

We call upon all people to come and raise the banner of equality with us, not only today but every day. We are fighting with defiance the reactionary laws like Shari’a which is based on the subjugation of women and degradation of their position. We need to unite with all egalitarian and equality lovers around the world. The advance of women’s cause is the result of decades of struggle by progressive human beings, by socialists and feminists that have achieved successes in bettering women’s lives with outcomes such as the expelling of clergy and other reactionaries and preventing them from harming and suppressing women.

Let’s Make Every Day a March 8!

Yes to Full equality between women and men!

Long live March 8, International Women's Day!