The Journal

Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Jamie Ford Professor Cynthia Enloe gives a lecture titled "Why Pay Attention to Women in the Iraq War?" She spoke to a packed room about the situation women face on both sides of the war and how it affects policies and regulations for soldiers. Enloe has been named Clark University's Outstanding Teacher of the Year three times. She has traveled extensively speaking about the interconnectedness of women and politics on the international level.

Women in Iraq do not have enough security to take part in civic life, said renowned feminist Cynthia Enloe. She presented "Why pay attention to women in the Iraq War?" on Nov. 13 in Sverdrup Room 101.

"Iraqi women have been politically active since the 1950s," Enloe said. "We don't have to dream up political ideas for them. They just need the space and security to do it for themselves."

Enloe addressed this issue by telling the story of Nemo, a female beauty shop owner in Baghdad. A Washington Post reporter went into Nemo's salon to get Iraqi women's thoughts on the current war. The beauty salon was used as a space for political discussion as women talked about their current fears concerning the lack of security. Women were being kidnapped for ransom, and the police, recently reorganized by the United States, were ignoring women's concerns, Enloe said.

"The police responded by saying, 'We won't deal with that now but later once the insurgence has died down,'" Enloe said. "The problem is that this idea of 'later' becomes institutionalized with the police force, and women's voices will never matter."

Because of a lack of security, the Iraqi women couldn't come wings. In 2004, there were more than 200 active women's groups in Iraq, and now that number is down to essentially nothing because they are afraid to go out and meet each other, Enloe said. She said this fear determines their political role in society.

Enloe connected this idea of oppression with the example of Kim Gorski, the wife of a National Guard soldier, Mike Gorski, who was deployed in Iraq. Gorski considered herself a civilian and not a military wife. She received a call from the Pentagon asking her to play the role of an officer's wife. They wanted her to be the major support person for all military wives of her husband's subordinates even though Gorski was trying to support two kids, get a real-estate license and deal with her husband being overseas.

Continued...

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