Twenty years ago Iraqi women and girls were promised a new future of liberation and education by former US president Bush. The reality is different
oming home late in the evening as a young girl in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, Zainab, then 15, feared each day could be the last time she could go to school. Living in a conservative district in Basra province, where females out alone in the evening are frowned upon, Zainab’s family were not happy about it. They were also concerned about her safety.
The late evenings led to arguments with her family, but her parents’ faith in education, despite their illiteracy, meant Zainab was able to complete her education – though not in Iraq, as her family later left for Jordan, escaping conflict and instability. It’s a far cry from the vision outlined by President George W Bush in March 2004, a year after the US-led invasion of Iraq. At the time, a new future of liberation and education for women and girls had been part of the moral justification for the invasion.
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