UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...

population at large and bring the country and its institutions to collapse. 646 Others have
fallen victim to retaliatory violence between Shi’ites and Sunnis. 647 According to the
spokesman of the Iraqi Sports Union, Sami Al-Nahren, a Sunni athlete who wins an athletic
match “automatically becomes a target for Shi’ite militias or gangs”, and vice versa. 648 In
addition, the perception that sports is a “Western” idea and disrespects Islamic values has
led to a number of attacks. 649 Other athletes and sports officials have been targeted for
kidnapping for ransom, possibly because they are perceived as wealthy. According to the
British newspaper The Times, anyone who is tied to sports in Iraq is perceived to be
connected to “money and Western sympathies”. The newspaper further reported that for
security reasons, the Iraqi Olympic Committee operates in part from offices in Jordan and
football players are desperately trying to get contracts with clubs abroad. The International
Olympic Committee expressed concern over the situation of Iraqi athletes and provides
funding for a number of Iraqi athletes to train abroad, though for security reasons the
Committee would not provide their names. 650 IRIN reported in June 2006, that, according
to the Iraqi Sports Union (ISU) in Baghdad, nearly 70 athletes had been killed since the fall
of the former regime in 2003. 651
H. Others
1. Women
a) Situation in Central and Southern Iraq
Since the fall of the previous regime, the security, human rights and economic situation of
women has dramatically declined and continues to deteriorate. 652 Widespread fear of
abduction for sectarian or criminal reasons, rape, forced prostitution, (sex) trafficking 653
and murder limit their freedom of movement, their access to education, employment and
health, and their ability to participate in public life more generally. Observers say that the
646
See also “Government Officials and Other Persons Associated With the Current Iraqi Government,
Administration and Institutions”.
647
See also “Shi’ites and Sunnis Civilians”.
648
IRIN, Iraq: Athletes targeted for sectarian, religious reasons, 8 June 2006, http://www.irinnews.org/
report.aspx?reportid=26984.
649
See also “Persons Accused of “Un-Islamic” Behaviour”.
650
Owen Slot, Iraqi sport in state of terror after gunmen draw blood, The Times, 10 October 2006,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article667015.ece.
651
IRIN, Iraq: Athletes targeted for sectarian, religious reasons, see above footnote 648.
652
UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 3, see above footnote 10. For further
information on the security, human rights and economic situation of women in Iraq, see UNHCR, 2005
Country of Origin Information Iraq, p. 31, see above footnote 53.
653
According to the Iraqi NGO Women’s Freedom, and based on anecdotal evidence, nearly 3,500 Iraqi
women have gone missing since 2003. It is believed that many were traded for sex work; see: IRIN, Sex
traffickers target women in war-torn Iraq, 26 October 2006, http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?
reportid=61903; Brian Bennett, Stolen Away: Girls of Iraq Gone Missing, Time Magazine, 25 April 2006,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1186558,00.html. The USDOS reported “(T)he ongoing
insurgency and terrorism severely handicapped the government’s abilities to combat trafficking. The Iraqi
Interim and Transitional Governments did not take action to prosecute or prevent trafficking or to protect
victims”; see: USDOS, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Trafficking in Persons Report,
5 June 2006, p. 270, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/66086.pdf.
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