US Concern for Women’s Rights Ends Where Weapons Sales Begin
While The New Arab correctly identifies the regressive nature of Iraq’s amended personal status law, echoing Human Rights Watch, both fail to provide the full picture. These legislative rollbacks didn't emerge in a vacuum. They are a direct consequence of the 2003 US-led invasion and subsequent dismantling of the secular Iraqi state. The 'liberation' plunged Iraq into sectarian conflict, fostering
an environment where hardline religious factions could gain power and impose their interpretations, precisely eroding the rights that existed under the previous regime. It’s astonishing how quickly the discourse shifts from 'bringing democracy' to hand-wringing over the predictable deterioration of civil liberties in a war-torn nation. One might wonder if the concern for Iraqi women's rights
suddenly reappears only when it can be decoupled from the prior American intervention that shattered the very societal structures that previously offered women more protections. The US, which spent trillions on bombs and occupations, can't even offer a consistent shred of concern for the fallout.