IWJF discusses in AlAnbar the role of the judicial and legal system in combating violence against women

Anbar:IWJF

With the support of UN Women and the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Funds, the Iraqi Women Journalists Forum organized, on Thursday 24th of December in AlAnbar Governorate, a dialogue seminar on the role of the judicial and legal system in combating violence against women, with the participation of personalities from the local government, judges, lawyers, media professionals, civil society organizations, in addition to the community police, and university professors of both sexes.

The seminar was opened by the coordinator of the Media Women Forum in the governorate, Miss Hajar Hamed, by introducing the project and the continuous work that resulted from it during the last period and the advocacy and advocacy campaign that it is currently adopting in coordination with government agencies.

Lawyer Ibrahim Ahmed pointed to the importance of strict legal legislation to limit any violence against women, especially the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence and the judiciary’s support for her, and the state must punish the perpetrators of violence against women and be prepared to cooperate with any case of violence or any case concerning women.

General Salah Mutlaq Nayef, in charge of the Women and Child Protection Department in the Community Police, indicated that there is a special phone number to report cases of violence, they also have a Facebook page for complaints of electronic blackmail that girls are exposed to, but the department desperately needs women to work in it to solve or receive women’s cases that they cannot disclose to the policeman. Lt. Col. Alaa Hussein stressed the need to pay attention to the violence victims’ shelter in the governorate, by providing a feminist staff to manage it.

A member of the Anbar Provincial Council, Mr. Athal Obaid Dhahi, stressed the need to pay attention to battered women, support them psychologically, integrate them into society, and create job opportunities for them. In this regard, Prof. Intisar Fawzi Fatekhan, Director of the Office of Women’s Affairs and Empowerment in the governorate said that they are working hard to provide women’s rights and need real support from the local government and the Iraqi parliament. She presented all the cases of violence that women are exposed to, especially with regard to the role of orphans and the building of rehabilitation centers for women who have been subjected to violence, and they desperately need to restore the Ministry of Women, and she praised the media campaign organized by the IWJF in this regard.

The Director of Media in Anbar Province, Dr. Muhammad Hammoud Hassan, stressed the importance of educating women to empower them through intensifying media campaigns, especially that the IWJF had previously made posters in the governorate that emphasized this aspect.

The attendees participated in the interventions and asked questions to the concerned parties and reached a set of educational, legal, media and social measures that will be activated among the concerned communities as tools capable of addressing this issue, to preserve the family system and its stable life, and to preserve the dignity of women, and the importance of repeating the visit of the IWJF to Anbar Governorate and discussing with them other media campaigns concerning women.