Iraq's secret women's shelters

There is virtually no state provision for victims of domestic abuse in Iraq. As a result, Iraqi women have been left to protect and support each other, organising secret shelters for survivors and trying to assemble health and legal support for victims.

From inside one of the secret shelters, 22-year-old ‘Mariam’ tells the BBC’s Rebecca Kesby about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband and his relatives. “For the first time ever, I now feel I have a real family,” Miriam says of life in the refuge.

Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed, who set up the first known women’s safe house in Baghdad in 2003, tells Rebecca how her work has led to death threats and law suits, forcing her into hiding.

Rebecca also speaks to a former member of the Iraqi parliament who has tried in vain to force a change in the law to criminalise domestic violence, and to a policewoman who is struggling on a daily basis to contain the rising violence in the home.

Presenter/producer: Rebecca Kesby
Editor: Mike Lanchin
CTVC production for BBC World Service

(Photo: An artwork of stitched clothes from women who survived domestic violence by artist Tara Abdallah stretches over 5km on a major street in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's northern Kurdish region, 26 October 2020. Credit: Shwan Mohammed/AFP/Getty Images)