Many thanks to Yanar Mohammed for providing this remarkable report on the IWD Festival in Baghdad. In reading it you will find a remarkable strength and spirit that is not understood from the ‘news’ about Iraq:
OWFI (the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq) organized a festival in the Theatre Hall of the Technology University in Baghdad for IWD on March 9th. The festival opening was a pantomime theatre play dedicated to “Dua Khalil”, a victim of male-fascist tribalism in the northern town of Baashiqa. Police patrols stood around the scene of the crime, which was the public square of the town. They stood in solidarity with the cold-blooded killers. The criminal compromise between the police and the girl’s killers set the vista of our festival, which was a play of rejection of “honour crimes”. This play expressed anger against the slaughter of an innocent girl whose only crime was falling in love. The only spoken phrase in the play was (love will not die) which was followed by continuous applause from the audience.
The play was written and produced by Ali Jwad who is the head of the “Hurriya theatre group” which is currently the Freedom Space-theatre branch. They joined the FS gathering where they can express themselves freely with no censorship.
Yanar Mohammed OWFI president gave a speech where she introduced March 8 as the consequence of a historical struggle of women for their rights and equality with men, a struggle which was connected with progressive and freedom-seeking movements. Yanar focused on current women’s sufferings under 5 years of occupation. They have lost their social status because of insecurity and anti-women legislation which in turn, ruled out the physical being of women in the society. This has been enforced by the creation of a dress code which covers the overall feminine appearance from the public domain. She reiterated that there will be no civil society without liberated women. Women must be the organizers and struggle hand-in-hand with all people who believe in freedom and equality. In the end, she concluded: “…There are serious steps; which this crowd of women need to take towards organizing the struggle for freedom and equality for a better world.
Then there was a song specially written for IWD by the Freedom Space- music branch. Jafar Al Mshattat has composed the tune for Wissam Al Assadi’s poem into an IWD’s song written for Iraqi women. Jafar is one of the leading figures of FS-musicians who find difficulty in playing music around their districts, which are dominated by Shiite Islamist militias. For rehearsals, his musical instrument needed to be smuggled across the religious militias’ checkpoints. Jafar continued to sing love songs and other vivacious songs. The side aisles and upper balcony was filled with students dancing in groups to the songs.
A Poetry session of the Freedom Space followed. Popular poetry has become the signature of these events and this episode was started by well known popular poets. Jalil Sabih started with his poem “I am Iraqi” while walking up the stage and between the audience. Then Suad Shaheen followed, accompanied by her 9 year old son. They performed together in an innovative and creative duo. After her son stepped down, she read poems she wrote in praise of her lover. She had become a main feature of the Freedom Space gatherings with an outspokenness rarely found in men.
Security for the event was organized by progressive youth of Sadr city and Al Madaen.Holding the event was made possible with the security provided by two groups of volunteer progressive youth who believe in women’s freedoms as irrefutable rights. The first group watched the security of the hall, while the second group surrounded and accompanied Yanar Mohammed in and out of the hall due to death threats that are continually issued. Two rings of supporters walked her out of the university.
A considerable number of egalitarian male figures attended the event such as Falah Alwan, the president of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions of Iraq, Rasheed Ismail a veteran leftist activist, Naeem Moussa a leading unionist of Al Iskandariya who accompanied a women’s delegate from that town which lies in the deadly resistance triangle, Muamar Majid, secretary general of the FWCUI and Daniel Smith, an American journalist and artist/human rights activist from New Haven.
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