UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
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Both sexes have become victims of such attacks, as have liberal Muslims and members of<br />
religious minorities. Perpetrators of such acts are militant Islamists, both Sunni and Shi’a.<br />
There have been reports from several cities, such as Baghdad, Basrah and Fallujah, of<br />
religious edicts being made public banning a range of activities. 704<br />
Persons not abiding by strict Islamic dress codes are easily identifiable targets. Women,<br />
including non-Muslims, 705 have been assaulted, including with acid, for not covering their<br />
hair or wearing the abaya, the black, all-encompassing veil, 706 and men have been attacked<br />
for wearing short trousers, shaving their beards or having long hair. Reportedly, in areas<br />
under the control of religious groups or militias, women have been beaten for showing too<br />
much naked skin by not wearing socks or not covering their hair. 707<br />
Others have been targeted for engaging in activities considered “immoral” or “un-Islamic”,<br />
such as women driving cars, working outside the house or playing sports. Basketball player<br />
Samira Kubaissy was killed in January 2006 after she had been accused by extremists of<br />
un-Islamic behaviour. 708 Men and women are called upon to segregate in public. On<br />
15 March 2005, members of the Mehdi Army attacked picnicking Basrah University<br />
students, claiming they were violating the principles of Islam with their western-style<br />
clothing, and by singing, dancing and mingling with the other sex. The Sadrists fired guns<br />
at the students and beat them with sticks. Police were also present during the incident but<br />
did not intervene. University officials reported that at least 15 students were hospitalized. 709<br />
On 8 March 2005, three women were killed in the Shi’ite neighbourhood of Al-Sadr. They<br />
704 For example, flyers distributed in Baghdad’s neighbourhood of Tobji in October 2006 banned “vices”<br />
such as music and singing, celebratory gunfire at weddings, the selling of alcohol and drugs, wearing<br />
improper Western clothes and cutting hair and warned that those that who violate these bans would be “held<br />
accountable”. This religious edict was reportedly issued by the Committee for Promotion of Virtue and<br />
Prevention of Vice, which is linked to the local office of Muqtada Al-Sadr; see: Sudarsan Raghavan, Another<br />
Freedom Cut Short, The Washington Post, 6 October 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501825.html.<br />
See also on religious fatwas issued in Basrah, The<br />
Independent, For the women of Iraq, the war is just beginning, 8 June 2006,<br />
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article717570.ece.<br />
705 For further information on non-Muslim women forced to cover their hair, see p. 122.<br />
706 IRIN, Iraq: Women attacked for removing headscarves, NGO says, 7 March 2006, http://www.irinnews.<br />
org/report.aspx?reportid=26174; ibidem, Iraq: Acid attacks on “immodest” women on the rise, 4 July 2005,<br />
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=25229.<br />
707 For example, in Baghdad’s mainly Shi’ite suburb of Za’afaraniya, members of the Mehdi Army<br />
reportedly slap schoolgirls not wearing the hijab and in Amiriyah, a Sunni stronghold in Baghdad, militants<br />
shave the heads of three women for not being dressed decently and lash young men for wearing shorts; see:<br />
Nancy Trejos, Women Lose Ground in the New Iraq, The Washington Post, 16 December 2006,<br />
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/15/AR2006121501744.html; Beaumont,<br />
see above footnote 174; IRIN, Iraq: Athletes targeted for sectarian, religious reasons, see above footnote<br />
648. In May 2006, three athletes were killed in Baghdad’s Sunni neighbourhood of Al-Saidiya after leaflets<br />
were distributed warning people not to wear shorts, as it “violates the principles of Islamic religion when<br />
showing forbidden parts of the body”; see BBC News, Iraqis shot “for wearing shorts”, 26 May 2006,<br />
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5020804.stm; The Associated Press, Iraqi Athletes Killed for Wearing<br />
Shorts, 27 May 2006, http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2012915.<br />
708 Trejos, ibid.; Beaumont, see above footnote 174; IRIN, Iraq: Athletes targeted for sectarian, religious<br />
reasons, see above footnote 648; The Independent, For the women of Iraq, the war is just beginning, 8 June<br />
2006, http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article717570.ece.<br />
709 Catherine Philp, Death at “immoral” picnic in the park, Times Online, 23 March 2005,<br />
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1537512,00.html.<br />
129