Iraq’s War Widows Face Dire Need with Little Aid

Kenya Satchell
February 23, 2009
7:05 PM

According to this article, Iraqi women and children are doing pretty badly. The husbands have been killed and there has been no source of income for these widows and children. The mothers have turned into beggars, prostitutes, and marrying any old Joe just for income and stability. It is obvious that these women need help of all sorts, but Mazin al-Shihan, director of the Baghdad Displacement Committee thinks these women need to have some type of male guidance (a husband) in order to receive funds. He says women are not capable of spending money wisely, and it would just be easier to trust them if there was a male figure in the picture. There is a trailer park called Al Waffa, or “Park of the Grateful” that houses 750 people, and you have to be lucky to get housed there. The women are being black mailed into sexual acts with powerful men that have government control.

I think with the United States butting into everyone else’s affairs this should be a major one they get involved in. These women are struggling to feed and provide for their children and they can’t get help unless they are sexually active with a government official? This has to be one of the most degrading situations to be in. Anytime children are involved or getting the short end of the stick it saddens me because in these Third World countries there is nothing anyone can do about it. Opening up widow housing for 750 widows and children is a start, but you have a population of 740,000 widows!!! Things have to get better not just for them but across the globe!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/world/middleeast/23widows.html?hp