Two Iraqi women working with British forces in Basra, Iraq were killed earlier this morning, July 26. Gunmen fired gunshots at the women while they were in their car traveling to work at the Basra airport. The Associated Press sites this as another example of Iraqi insurgents targeting Iraqis working with coalition forces.
Threats against Iraqi women leaders and women working for the United States have been escalating in Iraq. Earlier this year, two Iraqi women working for the Coalition Provincial Authority were killed by gunmen while driving in a minibus in Baghdad, and an Iraqi woman working as a translator for US troops was killed in her house when gunmen broke in. In addition, a leading women’s rights activist Fern Holland, who worked tirelessly in Iraq to help Iraqi women achieve their rights, became one of the first American civilian employees of the Coalition Provisional Authority to be killed in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that a senior level Iraqi official working for Iraq’s Interior Ministry was killed in a drive-by-shooting outside of his home.
DONATE to the Feminist Majority and support our global women’s rights programs
