It has been 20 years since the United States and its allies invaded Iraq in their “war on terror.” What the U.S. sold as a grim but necessary surgical strike for democracy and stability in the Middle East worsened the conditions in which women and children live.
Deepening poverty and weakened state institutions made women and girls more vulnerable to exploitation and is just one consequence of the devastation. Through their research and interviews with Iraqi women and activists, Keough School Professor Emeritus David Cortright and Master of Global Affairs student Anna Romandash found that supporting a legal framework to stop violence against women, providing targeted support for social and economic opportunity, and ending temporary marriages that authorize rape, could begin the process of empowering women and advancing gender equality.
Read the policy brief »
Watch the 2023 International Women’s Day Panel Discussion (Iraqi Women Speak) »
