Asquith, C. (2014). Where Airstrikes Fall Short, the West Can Still Act to End Violence Against Women. Solutions 5(6): 23-26. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/where-airstrikes-fall-short-the-west-can-still-act-to-end-violence-against-women/
Perspectives Where Airstrikes Fall Short, the West Can Still Act to End Violence Against Women by Christina Asquith
Mocassino
Women in Syria face increased threats from ISIS in addition to a poor women’s rights culture across the greater region.
T
he Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) atrocities against women have provoked worldwide outrage, generating increased support for U.S. action in the region and hundreds of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since August. Yet for all this indignation, similar abuses against women, including child marriages, legalized marital rape, and domestic abuse, occur in countries across the Middle East, often without legal consequences. With or without ISIS, defense of women’s rights in the region has long been weak. Domestic violence
was legal in Saudi Arabia until 2013 and in Lebanon until this year.1,2 In Turkey, rates of domestic violence are two to three times higher than in either the United States or Europe, and increasing.3 Furthermore, crimes committed against women, such as rape, not only go unpunished, but are also frequently blamed on the victims. This belief that a woman bears responsibility for her rape often results in an “honor crime,” in which the victim’s family kills her to restore their honor. Thousands of “honor crimes” are estimated to occur
each year in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Turkey, and elsewhere, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.4 ISIS’s atrocities to women are not so unique in a region that ranks at the bottom of indices that measure women’s political empowerment, property rights, and economic freedoms.5 In January 2014—six months before the arrival of ISIS in Mosul—the Iraqi government pushed forth legislation known as “Jaafari Person Status Law” that would allow child marriage, facilitate polygamy, and restrict women’s rights in matters of inheritance and
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