Layla Anwar:
"I have met, spoken to, listened to, read about hundreds of cases of Iraqi women raped since "their liberation". Raped by militias, raped by the police, raped by American soldiers, raped by contractors, raped by neighbors, raped by strangers...
This physical, sexual, moral, spiritual assault on the Feminine is ongoing in Iraq...
It has not stopped. And will not stop because rape is encouraged. Yes you read me right. It is encouraged.
When a rapist(s) is not arrested and not tried, a message is sent out, a clear and loud message saying - the feminine body is public property for you to possess and enjoy.
The invasion and the occupation of the Iraqi woman is a DIRECT consequence of the invasion and occupation of her country. The two go together, hand in hand.
The Occupation of Iraq has set free the perverse demons of a deviant Patriarchy, that were chained by authority, an authority that respected and protected women, and are now set free to do as they please with our bodies..."
"I have met, spoken to, listened to, read about hundreds of cases of Iraqi women raped since "their liberation". Raped by militias, raped by the police, raped by American soldiers, raped by contractors, raped by neighbors, raped by strangers...
This physical, sexual, moral, spiritual assault on the Feminine is ongoing in Iraq... It has not stopped. And will not stop because rape is encouraged. Yes you read me right. It is encouraged.
When a rapist(s) is not arrested and not tried, a message is sent out, a clear and loud message saying - the feminine body is public property for you to possess and enjoy.
The invasion and the occupation of the Iraqi woman is a DIRECT consequence of the invasion and occupation of her country. The two go together, hand in hand.
The Occupation of Iraq has set free the perverse demons of a deviant Patriarchy, that were chained by authority, an authority that respected and protected women, and are now set free to do as they please with our bodies..."
Layla Anwar, Uncensored Arab Woman Blues - 3rd October 2009 - uncensoredarabwomanblues.blogspot.com.
This painting started on a summer morning when someone had been explaining to me why a friend, a rare and precious thing, would be spinning out of my life forever. So I painted the far away horizon of the disappearing globe.
As the brushes hit the canvas the Afghan women appeared in their blue burkas, and it seemed we were all together in a gale of grief, losing our footing upon a spinning and exploding world.
I once read a description of the destruction of a shady town square in Kabul during the Taliban's reign there. They cut down those ancient trees that gave vital shade to the meetings of people, and used them for firewood.
The erosion of the orchards and gardens of Afghanistan, the brutalising of the shady places, is so connected with the silencing of women's footsteps in my mind. She should be silent, she should not appall the air with the paucity of her presence.
Being made invisible is haunting. You even haunt yourself. Your absence anticipates death.
In August 2007 the Taliban in Basra declared that any woman dressed immodestly, with hair or ankle showing, should be killed, and her body left on the street so that other women might understand the price of disobedience. The same thing is going on all over Iraq today. Society there has suffered such a great loss with the loss of women's freedom. Joy and music are banished from the streets.
How terribly wrong all that loss, and who has gained? Who has gained from the horrors there? Those who love discord and war, those who love to appropriate oil, power and wealth. They have gained and all the rest of us have lost for generations to come.
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