Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire

The Worst Environment For Women To Live In

Even cold war was not as complex as the situation on ground in Syria and Iraq. During the cold war, the world was on the verge of a human catastrophe due to the impending nuclear confrontation between former USSR and US. Then, the threat was open and overt; the imminent clash was between two classic armies, Soviet’s red army and US army. People across the world were terrified, if one side attacked the other, the retaliation will be very destructive, but none have dared to use their most advanced weapons, although they faced each other in many proxy wars. The fear and terror instilled in the minds and hearts of citizens in Europe, US and USSR forced some of them to hide in the undergrounds and basements whenever they were hearing alarms notifying people of an incoming attack. This terror lasted for decades, till the collapse of USSR in 1990. Both US and USSR had a lot to lose, it is right that both had an ideological perspective; one pursuing communism the other capitalism but they were still negotiating and discussing their viewpoints to each other. Coming back to Middle East, the Arab Spring that started in Tunisia in 2011 and ended there, it changed to Arab winter in other Arab countries and its “winds of change” turned to a nightmare! Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria experienced mass killing, genocide, destruction and displacement of millions of people plus the collateral damage it had on their neighboring countries. The turmoil and increasing disorder in Middle East dates back to centuries ago, a phrase coined by Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1979 during the cold war “the arc of crisis” can best describe the facts about this part of the world. The arc of crisis holds in its subsoil about three-fourths of the proven and estimated world oil reserves, and it is the locus of one of the most intractable conflicts of the twentieth century: that of Zionism versus Arab nationalism. Moreover, national, economic and territorial conflicts are aggravated by the intrusion of religious passions in an area which was the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and by the exposure, in the twentieth century, two competing appeals of secular modernization: Western and communist.

The arc of crisis a place haunted by religious fictions, embraces a plethora of radical groups based on Islam, i.e. Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Party of God (based in Lebanon) Muslim Brotherhood, Alshabaab of Somalia, AQIM, AQAP and many others. Each one of these groups is supported and sponsored by a state in the Muslim world. The most recent group among them is ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) a militant group who are very brutal and bloodthirsty, they are against everyone in the world, unless you are a pure Islam, you are either banished, forced to be converted to Islam, pay Jizya (an amount of money paid by non-Muslims who live under Islamic State) if not your sentenced to death. Depending on strict interpretations of Quran, ISIS rejects anything other than Islam. Democracy, Nationalism, Women’s Rights, Civil Society and Individualism these principles are all considered as Haram (forbidden or proscribed by Islamic law). Their aim is the establishment of Islamic Caliphate, and the recovery of the Ummal Al-Islammya. According to a documentary movie released by Vice News (an international news organization) in the footage some jihadists appear with their kids as they claim they want to “groom their children for jihad” to them family is the least thing important, they don’t want to enjoy, they pray to God in order to experience hardship and adversity, because they believe that God will praise their work in paradise by giving them 70 nymphs!!! Then they can have in eternal happiness. In other words they (the jihadists) don’t need the security in this life, because all they try and long for is in the other life (the life after death), which is only guaranteed if they go to Jihad against infidels and devil worshippers! One of the ISIS militants appeared in the footage by Vice News says “We are the best people walking on earth after the prophet and Caliphs” it is this belief and self-regard that makes the Jihadists to feel proud of killing innocent people and raping women!!!

Within such a context, it is of crucial importance to throw light on the situation of women who are most vulnerable to the violence and offensive not only of ISIS terrorists but also of the harsh environment of the Middle East. The awkward situation of women in Iraq & Syria nowadays can be the worst in the world. To understand the predicament of women, one must see them and hear their story; also one must know about the aggressor! It is very shocking to see women used as an instrument to motivate men to fight a war of injustice against people who are definitely innocuous. Well, this is happening in Iraq and Syria “Jihad” women are used to quench their sexual thirst. Radical jihadists claim that women are fragile and so weak to fight the infidels, but still they have a choice to warship God and serve the Jihadists, “Jihad Marriage” is proposed. According to Jihad Marriage a woman must serve sexual needs of a man whenever she is needed, in a footage circulated in the social media, a timetable is created, first the names of women are written then each women must perform her duty according to the timetable, each time with a different man, several times a day!!! In another footage a group of men and women appear divided by a line, a Mulla stands between them after reading some text from Quran, he announces that you are now all married!!! Shocking ha???!!! Rumors say that Yazidi girls who were raped by ISIS militants have committed suicide!!! Well Jihadists and those who have some solidarity with them this is beyond criticism! For me, that I know them very well, it is not a big surprise, even in a very calm and secured environment if something goes wrong some biased and narrow-minded people looking blindly they accuse women, they claim it is women who bring bad luck because they don’t put veil and are not submissive!!! All the women around the world must know what is going on here; they must know what is the ideology behind these extremists who abuse women! Women in Middle East don’t enjoy their God given freedom, they don’t have financial independence, they are not allowed to travel alone, in some environments they even are not permitted to drive a car! Unfortunately the war in Syria and the ISIS offensive in Iraq has aggravated the lives of women. It is like coming out of the frying pan and falling into the fire! According to Iraqi officials some of the victims, including women and children were buried alive in scattered mass graves in and around Sinjar. Committing such atrocities comes after ISIS terrorists attacked Sinjar, a city of Yazidi majority. Yazidis are a religious minority who are ethnically Kurdish. Thousands of them are displaced; some of them still remain over mount Sinjar. They are homeless, thirsty, starving, and feel utterly humiliated! It is not only Yazidis who suffer these atrocities; Christian families are also subject to ISIS offensive. Christians and Yazidis are considered as devil worshipers, after capturing their cities and villages their women are seized by the militants, and the men are either killed or may survive an escape, if lucky! One of the survivors witnesses that after attacking the village the militants asked us to collect all the money, gold and mobile phones we have, after that they separated men and women, they took the women and children and killed all the men!

As a final comment, whatever is the objective of the ISIS terrorists, women are the first who pay the price, they are either raped, killed or even if they make to survive their husbands and children are lost! Women suffer the loss of their families, the only safe haven, their home, is now taken. It is really difficult to describe the way women live in this country, from now every time I see something deserves to be heard and seen by the rest of the world I will do my best to publish it and bring it to your consideration. If the women elsewhere have a problem with education or a family issue, in Iraq they are facing death everyday, their children are orphaned and all of a sudden they become the property of Jihadists, where they are imposed to have sex with them several times a day!

Sources:
Lenczowski, George. \"The Arc of Crisis: Its Central Sector.\" Foreign Affairs (Council on Foreign Relations), April 1979.