What kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq

Birkbeck Institute for Social Research

Diagnosing the Contemporary - Seminar Series 2009/10


Nadje Al-Ali (SOAS) What kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq
In the run-up to war in Iraq, the Bush administration assured the world that America's interest was in liberation-especially for women. IN my talk I will explores the situation of women women have fared since the invasion by contextualising the contemporary in historical perspective. MY talk will expose the gap between rhetoric that placed women center stage and the present reality of their diminishing roles in the "new Iraq." Based on interviews with Iraqi women's rights activists, international policy makers, and NGO workers and illustrated with photographs taken by Iraqi women,I will correct the widespread view that the country's violence, sectarianism, and systematic erosion of women's rights come from something inherent in Muslim, Middle Eastern, or Iraqi culture. I will also demonstrate how in spite of competing political agendas, Iraqi women activists are resolutely pressing to be part of the political transition, reconstruction, and shaping of the new Iraq.

Wednesday 7th October 3.30 - 5pm Room 254 Birkbeck Main Building

Free and open to all

For more information and detail about the rest of the series please visit: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/bisr/activities/diagnosing




Julia Eisner
Administrator
Birkbeck Institute for Social Research
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX

T: (0) 20 3073 8363
F: (0) 20 3073 8359
E: j.eisner@bbk.ac.uk