Wheels of Justice

"Iraqi women have seen their rights eroded in all areas of life while the world observes from afar," warns the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Yakin Ertuerk, on the International Day on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. "The ongoing conflict, high levels of insecurity, widespread impunity, collapsing economic conditions and rising social conservatism are impacting directly on the daily lives of Iraqi women and placing them under increased vulnerability to all forms of violence within and outside their home", says Ms. Ertuerk.

The Iraqi Kurdistan court of appeals should act immediately to overturn a judge's ruling on Tuesday to impose a one-month prison term against a journalist who published critical reports about the Sulaymania courthouse. The journalist's lawyer said newly adopted legislation does not appear to allow such a prison sentence.

Political leaders here do not see substantial near-term changes in United States policies toward Iraq despite president-elect Barack Obama's pledge to withdraw American forces and curb development assistance.

More than five years after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, Arab capitals are beginning to send ambassadors to Baghdad. But some Egyptian commentators question the timing of the move, which they attribute to pressure from Washington.

With Barack Obama’s victory in the American presidential elections there are expectations of changes in US policy in Iraq, involving a substantial reduction of force levels. The U.S. forces will withdraw in large numbers, but beyond that, and of interest to those who care for Iraq itself, can Obama realistically hope to achieve anything other than a unilateral withdrawal?

About 400 Christian families have returned to their homes in the northern city of Mosul after a spate of threats and killings led them to flee in early October, according to officials. "We have so far registered nearly 400 Christian families who have returned to their houses and jobs, and resumed normal lives thanks to the deployment of security forces," said Jawdat Ismaiel, head of the Ministry of Displacement and Migration in the province.

"Here's an interesting new disorder for medical science to investigate," writes an Iraqi employee of the BBC, "Baghdadophobia - an Iraqi's fear of his own capital city."

Some of the day's Iraq stories you may have missed.

The Iraqi doctor looked us straight into the eyes and said "I would rather be dead than tell anyone I have been raped." If this woman—a highly educated, successful doctor working for the UN— wouldn't speak out, who would?

The Iraqi government should review its policy of encouraging Iraqi refugees to return home by offering them free plane or bus tickets, until it is able to ensure security, local and international NGOs said. "For the time being, the government should take care of the refugees and meet their daily needs in their host countries until it can secure suitable life conditions to allow them to go back to their homes," said Basil al-Azawi, head of the Baghdad-based Commission for Civil Society Enterprises, an umbrella group of over 1,000 NGOs operating inside and outside Iraq.

Not surprisingly, there are still hard feelings towards the United States in Fallujah. Jay Deshmukh, a reporter for AFP, visited the town and writes of a shop owner named Abdullah.

Some of the day's Iraq stories you may have missed.

After a long series of extensions, it now seems as if the final deadline for forming coalitions for the next local elections in Iraq will be on November 2, 2008. The first announcement of coalitions among the Shiite Islamist parties is one of the indicators that suggest the coalition-forming process could be coming to an end.

House-to-house polio vaccination will reach all 5,068,918 Iraqi children under five, according to a statement by the World Health Organization. For the first time since 2003, all health centers have been able to deploy house to house vaccinators teams. Safe passage of vaccinators in all targeted areas was granted. Acceptance rate by families and local communities was excellent and no serious incident was reported.

A single middle-aged woman in Damascus says that her only hope is resettlement. She is willing to go anywhere, although she, like most Iraqis, has many questions about what life is like in some of the resettlement countries. She came to Syria after her parents were kidnapped and killed in Iraq. She says that she would be killed if she returned; in any case, her house was burned down so she would have nowhere to go.

BAGHDAD (IRIN) - Fewer Iraqi Christian families are fleeing their homes in the northern province of Ninevah thanks to the heavy presence of security forces, but families who already fled anti-Christian attacks over the past few weeks are living in difficult conditions and are still reluctant to return to their homes, a local aid official said on 25 October.

The leaking of the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) and the more general strategical framework deal between the United States and Iraq has been so gradual that few surprises remained by the time most details were finally considered to be in the public domain last week. Perhaps the most interesting way of looking at the proposed deal is to study it from the point of view of the Iraqi government.

Since there are far fewer foreign reporters moving around a quieter Iraq, far less news is coming out of that wrecked land. The major newspapers and networks have drastically reduced their staffs there and what's left is often little more than a collection of pronouncements from the U.S. military, or Iraqi and American political leaders in Baghdad and Washington, framing the American public's image of the situation there.

La'Onf is an organization in Iraq that doesn't make headlines in the United States. It's members advocate for nonviolence and they've been organizing in Iraq's most deadly neighborhoods and cities. The organization just held its third annual Week of Nonviolence in Iraq. Here are a few photos.