Shafeeka, 59, was forced to leave her home shortly after the war began in 2003. "You can't imagine how hard it is to live in a tent but I have to be patient and hope that one day things will become better.“ Credit: Ceerwan Aziz/Oxfam
Iraq’s forgotten women
Six years since war began, Oxfam has produced a survey to highlight the desperate plight of countless women in Iraq and prompt positive action from their government and the international community.
We released the survey report, “In Her Own Words: Iraqi women talk about their greatest concerns and challenges,” (pdf, 171kb) on International Women’s Day 2009 to highlight the daily hardships women are facing as a result of years of conflict, and to prompt positive action from their government and the international community.
Here are some of the women we met:
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Four years and 17 billion dollars have been spent since the Afghanistan Compact was signed and Afghanistan is still one of the poorest places on Earth. While international support is appreciated, it has not been doing a good enough job helping Afghans improve their lives and meet their basic needs.