Iraqi Women Speak: Promoting Women, Peace, and Security

Zoom Webinar
12:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m., March 8, 2023

This event has now concluded. A full-length recording is available below.

Twenty years ago, the US invasion of Iraq unleashed a series of humanitarian tragedies that, combined with the effects of sanctions, set back women’s rights for decades. In the years since, women’s groups across the country have continued to work for progress, despite many obstacles. 

What is the situation for women in Iraq today? What are the challenges to implementing the Women, Peace, and Security agenda that would ensure women’s equal and meaningful participation in peace and security policy? And how might policymakers work with a variety of stakeholders in government, civil society, and the international community to support this agenda? 

On International Women’s Day, join us for a panel discussion that will explore these questions. Hear insights from a panel featuring leading Iraqi women scholars and policy advocates. 

Discussion will draw on the work of a new research paper Women and the Iraq War, 20 Years Later: The Consequences of War, Sanctions, and Occupation for Women and the Continuing Struggle for Women’s Rights, which examines the consequences of war, sanctions, and occupation on Iraqi women. Drawing on interviews with Iraqi women who have experienced and studied the effects of US policy in the region, the policy report provides a progressive blueprint for protecting and advancing women’s rights in Iraq. 

This event is presented by the Keough School of Global Affairs and its Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Pulte Institute for Global Development and by Alliance for Peacebuilding, Fourth Freedom Forum, the Costs of War Project, Win Without War, MADRE, the International Civil Society Action Center Network (ICAN), and Our Secure Future.

Photo: Ezidi women at Esiyan village (Yezidi village), Baadre, Dohuk Governorate, Kurdistan Region, in Iraq 09.jpg” by Levi Clancy is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.


Speakers

Nadje Al-Ali

Robert Family Professor of International Studies and Professor of Anthropology and Middle East Studies, Brown University

Yasmin Chilmeran

Co-Chair, UN-Government of Iraq Technical Working Group, International Organization for Migration

Megan Corrado

Director of Policy and Advocacy, Alliance for Peacebuilding

David Cortright

Professor Emeritus of the Practice, Keough School of Global Affairs

US Rep. Lois Frankel (Florida)

Co-Chair, Women, Peace, and Security Caucus

Noor Ghazi

Professor of the Practice, Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Yanar Mohammed

Co-founder and President, Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq

Elena Ortiz

Research Manager, Women, Peace and Security Index, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security

US Rep. Michael Walz (Florida)

Co-Chair, Women, Peace, and Security Caucus