News / Reports

Over one million Iraqi women widowed due to ongoing conflicts

Friday, 27 February 2015 12:44 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 27 February 2015 12:44 AM ]

Altaf Ahmad
Press TV, Erbil

Iraq's Minister of Women Affairs - Bayan Nouri - recently confirmed that the ongoing crisis and the emergence of ISIL in the country have led to a surge in the number of Iraqi widows. Officials say the number of women who have lost their husbands is now believed to have topped one million.

Many of these women were married to men who were fighting as soldiers or volunteers in the Iraqi army or Kurdish Peshmerga. Islamic Union lawmaker in Kurdish Parliament - Hajji Karwan - is handling the dossier of widows in the KRG. He told Press TV that these women are in desperate need of psychological assistance especially those who have witnessed the decapitation of their men or have become single parents.
With all the security and economic crisis in Iraq, the crisis of abused or widowed women is often swept under the rug.
However, many believe if this crisis is not dealt with properly it will have negative repercussions on the victims and the whole society.

Experts also believe the psychological and humanitarian situation of women in Iraq will continue to remain extremely difficult in the coming years.

Over a million widows; over two millions Internally Displaced Persons; civilian death tolls doubling every year and an entire population affected by the violence. This is the situation in Iraq today. But these numbers do not seem to have any impact on Western leaders whose policies in the region continue to rip this country into pieces and strip people of their human values.

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