Iraqi women's rights activist Sarah Jassim posts videos on her Instagram page on behalf of women who complain about sexual abuse and harassment by Iraqi men and boys. She says she uses her camera as a weapon. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.
According to Jassim, one of the videos she posted led to the arrest of an alleged perpetrator, a policeman accused of harassing schoolgirls. However, posting the videos is risky both for herself and for the women concerned. She says she has received death threats and threats of acid attacks, and has been accused of inciting public indecency.
For her own safety, Jassim barely leaves home and spends hours playing with her dog. She argues that stricter laws are needed, including laws that explicitly criminalise "harassment" and "gender-based violence" - terms that are currently absent from the penal code.
Violence against women and girls in Iraq is "widespread and under-reported," according to a May report by a UN committee on discrimination against women. Among dozens of recommendations, it urged the authorities to repeal "discriminatory" laws that exonerate rapists if they marry their victims, and allow reduced sentences for murder in cases where a perpetrator was carrying out a so-called "honour killing".
Amal - not her real name - has been battling in court for about five years. She accuses her ex-husband of repeatedly raping their daughter - who was under 18 at the time - at gunpoint. Amal recalls that the father walked into the girl's room and laid his weapon on her bed, telling her: "No-one will hear you if I kill you." Amal showed medical documents, including DNA evidence. She also heard him tell a family member to "wash off our disgrace" if he was arrested - an expression used in Iraq to refer to so-called honour killings. Amal believes the father threatened to end his daughter's life "so the medical report would not be released and the assault would not be proven". Her ex-husband is on the run and the court case remains open.
Sexual abuse has long been seen as a taboo subject in Iraq. Many survivors prefer to hush it up because of a potential family backlash, while others are afraid to go to the police for fear of social stigma and possible harassment. Iraq has very few shelters for abused women. Those known were established by an organisation co-founded by Yanar Mohammed, an internationally recognised women's rights advocate. Last March she was murdered outside her house in Baghdad by armed men. The perpetrators are still unknown.