Introduction
The history of women’s rights in Iraq can be described as a trajectory of remarkable advances and severe regressions. Long before the current era of instability, Iraq stood out in the region for attempting to institutionalise elements of gender equality. In 1959, the Iraqi government adopted the Personal Status Law (No. 188), one of the most progressive legal frameworks in the Middle East. The personal status law banned child marriage, explicitly stating that “full capacity to constitute a marriage requires a sound mind and completing eighteen years of age” (The Personal Status Law, Article 7). Moreover, the law also restricted polygamy by making it conditional on a judge’s permission, and requiring proof that no injustice would result among the wives (The Personal Status Law, Article 3).
By 1970, Iraqi women had the right to vote, run for political office, access education, and own property (Peace Women, 2013). Moreover, Iraq’s education system was widely regarded as one of the most advanced in the region, and female literacy rates werecomparatively high by regional standards. However, decades of conflicts, from the Iran-Iraq war and the crushing UN sanctions of the 1990s to the 2003 US-led invasion, systematically threatened these gains. If women were integral to Iraq’s economy and held high positions in private and public sectors, since the 1991 Gulf War and US-led economic sanctions against the regime in Iraq, women’s rights began to deteriorate. The sanctions had devastating consequences, contributing to widespread poverty, food insecurity, and the deterioration of public health and education systems (Peace Women, 2013). Women and girls were disproportionately affected as they lacked access to health care, education, and other necessities. These effects were compounded by the changes in the law that restricted women’s rights. The 2003 US-led invasion significantly undermined many of the institutional protections, setting women’s rights back 70 years.
This article aims to discuss how these historical shifts and legislative rollbacks have dismantled the safety net for Iraqi women. It will also examine Iraq’s complicity in rights violations and the devastating physical cost paid by those who continue to speak out against the regression, without assessing whether the invasion was lawful or examining any political aspects of it.
Women’s Rights in Iraq
Iraqi women have historically enjoyed more rights than women in other Middle Eastern countries. The Iraqi Provisional Constitution formally guaranteed equal rights to women, and other laws specifically ensured their right to vote, to receive an education, to run for political office, and even to own property (Human Rights Watch, N/A). Before the Gulf War, the secular Ba’ath party embarked on a program to consolidate its authority and to achieve rapid economic growth despite labor shortages: women’s participation was crucial to achieving these goals. Until 1990, women in Iraq played an active role in the country’s political and economic development. Iraq ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1968) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1968), which together provided equal protection under international law to all. Moreover, the Iraqi government also became one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 2003), guaranteeing equality and safeguarding women’s rights in Iraq (Human Rights Watch, N/A).
But with the start of the 1991 Gulf War, all progress rapidly vanished: women and girls suffered from increasing restrictions on their freedom of mobility, with their freedom to travel abroad restricted. They were also required to only go to the single-sex schools and universities, and the rate of “honour killings” increased rapidly (Human Rights Watch). The crushing weight of the UN sanctions throughout the 1990s acted as an “invisible war” that hollowed out the Iraqi middle class and dismantled the very state infrastructure women relied upon (Merip, 2023). The sanctions altered the social fabric of Iraqi society, destroyed the middle class, and plunged much of the population into poverty. The Iraqi government was deprived of oil revenue, historically the largest employer of women, along with the universal healthcare and state-supported childcare that had made their workforce participation possible. By the time the US and its coalition forces crossed the border in March 2003, Iraqi women were already largely in survival mode for more than ten years.
The US-led invasion of Iraq was famously sold to the global public wrapped in the rhetoric of liberation. In 2004, after a year of invasion, President George W. Bush explicitly weaponised the plight of Iraqi women to justify the occupation, and he stated that “for women and girls, liberation has a special significance. Some of these girls are attending school for the first time. It is hard for people in America to imagine. A lot of young girls now get to go to school” (The Guardian, 2023). However, the reality on the ground was a contradiction. The study published in 2004 found that the education system in Iraq lacked the basics necessary to provide children with adequate education, especially girls, whose enrollment was lower than that of boys across all grades (The Guardian, 2023), without improving over the past two decades. Girls are still at an increased risk of dropping out as they progress through education, with one in 14 girls in Iraq aged between 15 and 19 giving birth. Reportedly, as of 2017, Iraq had the lowest female literacy rate in the region, well below the global average of 83.3 percent (The Guardian, 2023). In cities like Baghdad and Basra, simply walking to school is not safe for girls, with families terrified of kidnappings and keeping their daughters at home. Finally, secular education was rapidly infiltrated by religious and political institutions, with younger students even forced to wear the hijab (The Guardian, 2023).
The US-led invasion of Iraq put political groups in power that attempted to undo one of the most important legacies for Iraqi women: the Personal Status Law (Merip, 2023). In 2003, the political groups linked to Shi’i Islamist Political parties proposed to completely abolish it: as; their first attempt failed, they proposed an alternative- to establish a sectarian-based Personal Status Code (Merip, 2023). This proposal marked a significant break with the code’s political legacy, reflecting the nature of the system put in place by the US administration in 2003. The proposed alternative was called the Muhasa system, which defined political representation based on communal belonging, though ethnic, sectarian, and religious affiliations (Merip, 2023). This system handed control of the country to conservative, heavily armed religious parties, many of whom had returned from exile with a specific agenda of eradicating the progressive legacy of the 1959 Personal Status Law (Merip, 2023). Almost immediately, these new ruling parties attempted to replace civil protections with sectarian jurisprudence. Over the next two decades, they continued to push for legislation such as the “Jaafari Law,” which sought to strip state-appointed judges of their authority over family disputes and hand it entirely to sectarian clerics. It would also permit marriage for girls as young as nine and allow unions without any legal protection for women. Such laws were designed to strip away protections against domestic violence, erase women’s inheritance rights, and legalisemarriage for underage girls (Merip, 2023). Although the US claimed that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would support or even save Iraqi women, the reality is way different than that. The limitations on women’s rights, especially social and spatial mobility, are particularly visible in Baghdad. The country was carved up by concrete blast walls, razor wire, and a labyrinth of military checkpoints, which meant that a woman’s daily mobility was entirely dictated by heavily armed men enforcing strict social orders (Merip, 2023).
Violence and instability became constants in Iraq. The removal of the regime created a power vacuum that resulted in relentless violent episodes, averaging at least one per day for 19 years (Al Jazeera, 2023). The US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq lasted until 2011 and led to multiple waves of large-scale displacement. The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) rose from zero registered in 2003 to 2.6 million in 2007, and the number reached its peak in 2014 with 4.4 million internally displaced people (Al Jazeera, 2023). Moreover, in addition to those internally displaced, millions became refugees. At its peak in 2007, more than 2.3 million Iraqis had fled the country. Women bore the absolute brunt of the crisis: they were navigating the extreme poverty of displacement camps while completely cut off from the legal protections their mothers and grandmothers had once enjoyed.
Far from being liberated, Iraqi women found themselves fighting a brutal, two-front war. They had to survive the daily physical violence of a fractured, militarised society, while simultaneously fighting to defend the last remnants of their legal rights from the very government installed to bring them democracy.
What’s Happening in Iraq Today?
The state’s failure to protect women in the private sphere inevitably spilled into the public arena as well. For over two decades, the Iraqi government has not only abdicated its responsibility to protect its female citizens, but has also actively criminalised the women who tried to fill the void. Female activists who tried and dared to challenge the regime in Iraq did so with targets on their backs.
Yanar Mohammed, a prominent Iraqi women’s rights activist, was killed outside her home in Baghdad on March 2, 2026 (Human Rights Watch, 2026). As the co-founder of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), she was a crucial figure of the Iraqi feminist movement. While the government stalled on passing domestic violence laws, she dared to take direct action. She established a network of underground shelters for women and girls fleeing domestic abuse, human trafficking, and imminent “honourkillings” (Human Rights Watch, 2026). Her organisation provided the only lifeline for women in a country where the state offered none. Because of this, she was often harassed, facing lawsuits from the Iraqi government attempting to shut down her shelters and enduring years of death threats from conservative militias (Al Jazeera, 2026). She was a fierce, unapologetic critic of the muhasa system and the relentless pushes to legalise child marriage through sectarian courts. Her murder must be viewed within the context of the Iraqi government’s systematic failure and lack of willingness to hold armed groups accountable.
On March 2, 2026, this decades-long campaign of intimidation culminated in her assassination. The killing of the prominent women’s rights defender shocked the country and the international community. The targeted killing immediately spurred calls for justice from local activists and global human rights organisations, but it also achieved its intended, devastating goal to send a message to every woman in Iraq who dares to speak out loud (Al Jazeera, 2026). The streets of Baghdad, already suffocated by political repression, grew even quieter. The Tragedy of Yanar Mohammed is a tragedy of modern Iraq, and her death serves as a reminder of how far the country has fallen since the progressive promise in 1959. From the devastating impact of international sanctions to the 2003 US invasion, to the current government’s actions, the safety net for Iraqi women has been entirely dismantled. The country is losing its fiercest female voices.
Conclusion
The trajectory of women’s rights in Iraq, from the progressive promises of the 1959 Personal Status Law to the violent realities of today, is a reminder of how fragile human rights can be when traded for political convenience. Decades of conflict and foreign intervention have completely rewritten the fate of Iraqi women. Today, the state actively constructs the very frameworks that endanger women’s rights and replaces civil protections with religious codes that strip women of their autonomy.
The killing of Iraq’s bravest women serves as a tragic and undeniable proof of this reality. The death of Yanar Mohammed was a predictable outcome of a system that grants total impunity to those who harm women and actively criminalises the women who try to protect the most vulnerable. If this campaign of violence and legislative erasure continues, the consequences will extend far beyond the feminist movements. A nation that systematically silences the female voices and dismantles their rights cannot hope to build a functioning and peaceful democratic country. Yanar Mohammed and other activists of her generation represent the absolute best of Iraq’s potential, fighting on the frontline for a more just society.
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