IRAQ: Widows Become the Silent Tragedy

[NNN0LHI]

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35751

BAGHDAD, Dec. 7 (IPS) - Hundreds of thousands of widows are becoming the silent tragedy of a country sliding deeper into chaos by the day.

Widows are the flip side of violence that has meant more than a million men dead, detained or disabled, Iraqi NGOs estimate. These men's wives or mothers now carry the burden of running the families.

"The total figure of men who have been killed, disabled or detained for long periods of time adds up to more than one and a half million," Khalid Hameed, chief of the Iraqi al-Raya human rights organisation told IPS. "The average number of Iraqi family members is seven, so about ten million Iraqis are facing the worst living circumstances."

In these circumstances, he said, women have had to "search for ways to survive and support their families at a time when not much help comes from the international community."

Most international NGOs left the country by last year apparently on the advice of governments of their countries pointing to growing violence and dangers to NGO members. snip

"We have never lived our lives as human beings should live," 42-year-old Dr Shatha Ahmed told IPS at her home in Baghdad. "The Iraq-Iran war took our fathers, and now the Bush war is taking our husbands and sons."

[rodeodance]

1. its women and KIDS.

[Marrah_G]

2. it is always the women and children who pay for the aggression of men

Not all men of course, but the ones drunk on power with an obsession for complete control. I wish people would not find these types of men so charismatic and follow them so willingly.

As a woman I find it hard to look at some parts of the world without feeling a mixture of extreme sadness, hopelessness and anger. I want to take them all into my home and tell them no one will ever brutalize and enslave them again with their society's blessing. I can't of course, but I want to.

I am thankful to have been born here.

[countryjake]

3. Makes ya real proud to be an american, eh

Destroying a culture, murdering a million people, crippling families; gee, ain't "democracy" grand?

Our nation is a disgrace to humanity!

[madokie]

4. a million and a half

can't we send bush to the Hague yet, how many more must die before we do.