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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Gender-based violence becoming concern in Iraq

Nadje Al-Ali from the University of London speaks about gender-based violence in Iraq on Tuesday at the Center for the Study of the Middle East.

The extremist terrorist group causing corruption and havoc throughout the Middle East, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has allowed the issue of gender-based violence to become normalized from its birth in the 2013 invasion of Iraq.

On Wednesday, Nadje Al-Ali, professor of gender studies at the University of London, led a discussion entitled “Beyond ISIS: Gender-Based Violence in Iraq” at the Center for Middle East Studies.

The discussion addressed the pressing issue of gender-based violence as well as violence against religious and ethnic minorities in ISIS in Iraq.

Nadje Al-Ali is author of the book “We Are Iraqis: Aesthetics and Politics in a Time of War.” The book showcases a variety of written and visual contributions by Iraqi artists, writers, poets and other kinds of artistic activists.

Contributors explore the way Iraqis preserve and generate art and activism as forms of coping mechanisms, in addition to resisting calamity and destruction in the world around them.

“Sexualized violence is a dehumanizing device,” Al-Ali said.

Al-Ali’s main research interests include gender theory, feminist activism, women and gender issues in the Middle East, transnational migration and diaspora mobilization, in addition to war, conflict and reconstruction.

There were 20 people in attendance at the lunch and lecture event. This was free and open to all majors and the public.

The discussion was centralized around the issue of women and gender-based violence and how the governments’ use of censured propaganda is a means of covering up this pressing concern.

Sexual violence, in particular, was broken down into three forms. The first form was private, usually domestic violence behind closed doors of the home.

The next form was a systematic approach associated and justified as part of warfare. The final and most demanding form is doctrine-justified.

This form brings in a higher, religious force making it seem that sexual- and gender-based violence are commanded upon its followers and have a sacred obligation to be part of ?society.

“The question I always ask myself is, ‘How do we engage in some form of solidarity?’” Al-Ali said.

The push for military intervention in Iraq seems to be the only possible answer to this question, Al-Ali said. She is troubled by the hypocrisy found i n many gender-equality-based groups that haven’t made an active effort to stand up against this violence so far.

With her belief of media sensationalism of gender-based violence, Al-Ali said she believes it is imperative to contain ISIS and maintain efforts against its personal works. In times of war, national security takes precedent over humanitarian security. With this shift, women’s rights are almost always the first thing to leave the table, she said.

“ISIS is a symptom of a larger disease,” Al-Ali said. “This disease is sexualized violence.”

To make a difference, there has to be an active civil society in conjunction with women in leadership positions, she said. With this balance, Al-Ali said there can be a drop in this revolution of violence.

“We can’t allow the norm to be women making the tea and the men making the decisions,” Al-Ali said.

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