Rights Group Lashes U.S. on Status of Iraq Women

By Allison Stevens Washington Bureau Chief. March 6, 2007

The international rights group Madre chastises the Bush administration for supporting Islamist groups and allowing an erosion of women's rights in Iraq. Rape allegations directed at Iraqi forces are focusing the debate on U.S. involvement in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)--When two Iraqi women made highly public allegations of rape against Iraqi security forces last month, they drew international attention to a subject that usually is taboo in their war-torn country: sexual assault.

Sexual assault and other forms of violence against women, topics surrounded by cultural silence, are on the rise in Iraq, according to a report released today by Madre, an international women's human rights organization in New York.

And the United States, according to the report, bears much of the blame.

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