speak for her – Iraq (IFMSA-Iraq)

Name of the activity: speak for her

Country/NMO: Iraq (IFMSA-Iraq)

Program: Gender Based Violence

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Campaign

General description:

Huge campaign that took place in 8 province including Baghdad, we visits many camps, schools and also bazars,more than 28 events took place during the period of 16 day of activism, we held that campaign according to the new announcement of the government of the minor’s marriage, and we helped in ending it.
We started by a workshop by a psychological doctor and social workers, then the media of IFMSA Iraq help us to publish posts to raise awareness against women abuse and also reach many people who we can’t reach through our field work, we started our events in many places
The success indicator for our campaign was having the new announcement of the government to be refuse, and the great numbers of calls we get through our Hot-lines that means we reached our points in letting women asking for help to live her life peacefully with all her rights

Focus area:

Early and Forced Marriages

Problem statement:

The problem in my country or especially in my society is the great defect of understanding the women actions, abilities, things she can do and her rights. but gratefully the Iraq’s law prevent any type of violence against women, and of course it prevent“minors marriage”as one of the abusive action to the young women and children, but in my country the religion play a bid roll in controlling people’s life, and that’s why the new law has been clarified to the parliament to be discuss, unfortunately many of Iraqi people accept that as a correct action toward females before they get ethically twisted. And the other part of people confirm it as a type of violence and disrespect, so IFMSA-Iraq take the responsibility to raise awareness since there is one women in each 5 displaced women get abused and over 10000 of females get married before 18 years old.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Target group is females\males with age range by (15-50) years old, because we believed that if the women get educated carefully about her rights and also the same for the men, so to know the responsibility and rights of each one into the other, and that would raise the awareness and prevent the misunderstanding. The women ranged by (12-50) years old is the main group who will get the benefit from this campaign.

Objectives and indicators of success:

The objectives behind this campaign are:
1- trying to raise awareness about women’s right, using media is really helpful to reach many people in one time also we prepared a vedio about women’s right to be easy watched and reachable, we prepared an interview with many TV channels like Al-rasheed, huna Baghdad, Al-sharqia , we talked about the type of abuse and how to end it, also “minor marriage” is one of the first subjects we talked about.
2-changing the law that giving the parents the right to approve a teenager’s marriage.
3-describing the harassment as one of the types of violence against women.
4-visiting displaced people camps, because in each 5 displaced women there will be 1 woman who get abused and it’s really great percentage.
5-visiting school, because in each 3 girls there is 1 girl who get abused, or harassment at least.
6- Giving awareness to the common people in Malls, streets and bazars.
7-let the people understand the dangerous of being married and get pregnant while you are less than 18 medically and legally, and let the government step back for the new law of minor’s marriage.
Our assessment of this campaign depend on the surveys we teak from the camps, schools, malls we visited, also we prepare a hot-line to be reachable to each women who get abused and in need for physical, psychological help and the numbers of calls we received was an indicator for our success. Many women get the help through “Tajdid Iraq”. And the government now trying to collaborate with us for a new projects for the women’s right, the result of this campaign will be seen clearly in 1 month, also we helped in preventing the law of minor’s marriage, and as we hoped that was our aim.

Methodology:

IFMSA-iq achieved its objects by making a good foundation of strong members with their aims to reach the points and end violence against women, also with great believe of our campaign led us to success.
But mostly by depending on media to reach the great numbers of people, we need to reach
An animation video that has been published on social media and TV, for less than 5 min let the people understand what we need to say, a small video talking about minor’s marriage and what will face them after that, also posts about the number and situation of abuse in Iraq will help to understand the situation.
The camps leaders who welcomed us and discussed the type of abuse they faced in the camps, type of solution for such situation.
And because the camps was really far away from city center, the sefty of our members was really doubtful, but police joined us in our visits.
Also the public places will let you know more about your people and talk to them reaching some great points and solutions which is great.
there were many opportunities that helped us in moving forward, forgetting the hard experience we had during the campaign.
One of the opportunities was having the honor to collaborate with an great organization as great as “Tajdid Iraq.
Also, we had the honor to collaborate with UNAIDs, WCCs in all the provinces of Iraq.
All of the mangers of WCCs center were helpful, and had great spirit, and they facilitate many of the issues that could delay our campaign, answering our calls on time, preparing the coffee break, helping us with many things that we could not bring with us such as, roll-ups, papers and data show. Also, the drivers were patient with the volunteers.

Plans for evaluation:

that can be explained by simply, women with Bruises was telling us“an accident in the bathroom”, now the situation is different, women with Bruises can talk and ask for her rights, call police, physician, and psychologist and declaring that her husband abused her.
The numbers of calls we get every day on our hot-line,could tell about the numbers of women who can face their situation and fight for their rights.
Also the numbers of girls who left school in the camps get back to schools after a while from our visits.
The surveys which will be taking each 3 months will tell specifically.
also many women when we visit them for the first time they neglect such actions of abuse,later they were trying to be sure if the number of the hot-line is really working, and many others who ask about the way to get back to schools