IRAQ: Female harassment from religious conservatives

BASRA, 14 April 2004 (IRIN) - Many women in the southern Iraqi city of Basra say they have been forced to wear a headscarf or restrict their movements in fear of harassment from men. Female students at the University of Basra say that since the war ended a year ago, groups of men began stopping them at the university gates and shout at women whose heads are not covered. "We have two men now from a strict Shi'ite religious party who stay at the gates. When we pass them, we have to show them identity cards, if a girl is not wearing a scarf, they start to give her a hard time by telling her how much she is violating the Islamic law," a 22-year-old student, who declined to give her name, told IRIN. She recently decided to wear a headscarf and said that when she was not dressed in loose fitting clothing or was wearing make-up, the men wouldharass her. "They want to turn the society in the south here into what is happening in Iran. It wasn't like this in the former regime, even the cafeteria at the college has stopped playing music," she said. The student added that a group of them have gone to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to complain about harassment, but not much has been done and it seemed difficult to reach an agreement with religious groups. Another student, from the college of engineering, told IRIN that she tried to enter with a group of students to celebrate the graduation of a colleague. They were carrying a cake with them. "We were stopped at the gate and were ordered not to carry out any celebrations," she said. "I have a Christian colleague in the second year who moved to Baghdad because she was forced to wear a scarf to attend classes. Other Christian colleagues are wearing scarves now," she explained. "Shi'ite Muslim religious extremists are campaigning to force Islamic strict codes in the city," a professor at the college of agriculture and the head of a women's organisation in Basra told IRIN. "We can't memorise the names of the religious parties that have been formed over the last year, there are just so many," the professor who also wouldn't give her name, told IRIN. She maintained that educational standards were dropping. "Instead of scientific and educational brochures being distributed among students, I can only see a lot of religious leaflets and it seems that the deans at the university had an agreement with these religious groups so that they could keep their positions," she added. Basra, which was known for its nightlife, parks and social events During the 1970s is now a very different place, local women say. Almost all females wear a veil at the university, including Christian Iraqis. This, along with the security situation is making it impossible for women to walk freely on their own, some women say. In the months after the war the British forces allowed the militias who follow religious groups to take a leading role in security patrols, to help restore order, which may have influenced the situation, according to local women's groups. Isra, 25, who works for a construction company with the CPA, told IRIN that although she hadn't been threatened herself, she was worried that she would be harassed too as she doesn't wear a scarf. "I heard stories from a friend of mine who is still studying at the university. A Christian colleague of mine stopped working because she doesn't want to be stopped by these religious groups in the road. My family gives me a lift to my work, so I wear a scarf only when I go to the market on my own," she said.