Iraqi women participation in protests broke social taboos

In its edition of today, An Nahar wrote that female participation in anti-government protests on par with men, chanting slogans against politicians, including clerics, has caused a shock among Iraqis who could never have fancied this prior to the October Revolution. During the past few months, An Nahar said, revolt squares were crowded with women partaking in the demonstrations, treating the injured, writing on walls or tattooing the shoulders and arms of young men, as well as engaging in musical and discourse sessions. The newspaper said the recent uprising has appeased a kind of social rebellion, namely in the conservative rural cities of the South that boast a Shiite majority. It wrote that in Diwaniyah, about 200 km south of the Iraqi capital, the educational mentor, Hiyam Shayi’, did not envisage throughout the fifty years of her life that she will mingle outside her abode and speak out in a city where women are rarely seen on the streets. Standing by the demonstrators dressed in her black cloak, Shayi’ said: “Many social and cultural norms have changed intensely and unexpectedly.”. (An Nahar, February 20, 2020)