Women leaders reject 'state of living death'

United in their fight against discrimination and inequality, three women from crisis-struck countries received the 2008 Gruber International Women's Rights Prize -- Yanar Mohammed from Iraq, Sapana Pradhan Malla from Nepal, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kervorkian, a Palestinian woman living in the state of Israel. In contrast to the oft-repeated assertion that the increased number of U.S. soldiers deployed to Iraq in 2007 -- an operation known as the surge -- has significantly improved security there, Mohammed spoke of the worsening situation for Iraq's women. "[Even] in the times of bloody dictatorship, life in the big cities had more of a civil appearance," Mohammed told IPS. "Women almost had a situation of equality in terms of education, in terms of work and in some terms of civil life -- although I am not saying that they had their full social rights." Since the defeat of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by a U.S.-led military coalition in 2003 and the establishment of a new government, "We have been pushed into a situation which is more like the situation of Afghan women under the Taliban," Mohammed said. With conservative forces now ruling the country and Islamist militias controlling the streets, women have to veil themselves and are facing violence and a mass media that depicts women "as submissive creatures" and a "potential source of evil", as Mohammed describes it. "The new constitution [approved in October 2005] is an enemy of women that took away all our rights and put in place the Sharia, the religious law," Mohammed said. "This is not a democracy." Through her Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, a women's rights newspaper Al Mousawat, and the founding of two women's shelters and several safe houses to protect women threatened by domestic violence and killings, Yanar Mohammed is fighting for a secular, democratic state that guarantees equal rights for men and women. She is now preparing to launch yet another project -- a TV channel that portrays women "in a way that they are not portrayed in any other television over Iraq and the Middle East," Mohammed said. In New York on Monday, she received the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation's Women's Right Prize for "fighting tirelessly to stop the eradication of women's rights in Iraq", along with two other courageous women leaders. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who was honored for her work on sexual abuse and "femicide", a term she uses for the "abuse that puts women in a state of living death during times of war", also complained about the political, economic and social discrimination against the Palestinian minority living in the state of Israel -- a minority to which she belongs. "Israel is not a democratic state. Israel is a Jewish democratic state -- that means it is democratic for the Jews," Shalhoub-Kevorkian told IPS. "Those that are not Jews are seen as a security threat." Because of the numerous military checkpoints, many girls have stopped going to school, she said, and pregnant women have even gone into the hospital before they were due to avoid being delayed at the checkpoints and possibly having to deliver their babies there. "Let's say a woman wants to go and file a complaint at the police. So when Arabic is the second official language, they are supposed to find the forms in Arabic, right? But there are no forms in Arabic," Shalhoub-Kevorkian said. "And I want you to be with me in the airport and see how I am treated there." According to Shalhoub-Kevorkian, conditions for Palestinian women in Israel are especially severe for another reason: "We are living in a double marginalization," she said. "We are marginalized as a Palestinian minority living in our homeland. And we are marginalized by patriarchy." A professor of criminology and social work at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Shalhoub-Kevorkian initiated the first hotline for reporting abuse in the West Bank and Gaza at the Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling. She was also a consultant for the latest report on violence against Palestinian women in Israel by Human Rights Watch and for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). This year's third Women's Rights Prize laureate, Sapana Pradhan Malla from Nepal, was decorated "for fighting to include women's human rights in the constitution" as a member of Nepal's Constituent Assembly and as a member of the Forum of Women, Law and Development, for leading a successful effort to decriminalize abortion and to criminalize marital rape. After a decade-long civil war, the former kingdom of Nepal was declared a secular and inclusive democratic republic with the election of a Constituent Assembly in April 2008. Within two years, the Assembly has to draft a new constitution. "Today, women are voicing for their equal share in the political participation, in the decision making," Malla told IPS. "We are 33 percent in the Assembly, which also serves as the parliament -- this is a big change." Due in large part to her efforts as a practicing lawyer before the Supreme Court, 64 discriminatory laws have been struck down. She is also pushing for a "constitution that guarantees non-discrimination and equality within the fundamental law of the land." "But having [a new] constitution or law is not enough," Malla said. Women are only 10 percent of those working in the executive authority and the civil services, and only two percent of Nepal's judiciary. Also, women are more affected by deepening poverty and economic inequality. "The major challenge is the demolition of the patriarch mindset," Malla stressed. The Women's Rights Prize of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation was first presented in 2003 and honors individuals and organizations that have made "significant contributions, often at great personal or professional risk, to furthering he rights of women and girls in any area and to advancing public awareness to the need for gender equality to achieve a just world." Experts from around the world and former laureates were members of the committee that selected the recipients of this year's prize, which includes a 500,000-dollar cash award.