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GUEST: Yanar Mohammed, Chair of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq

Last August, two Iraqi women, 31 year old Wassan Talib and 26 year old Zeynab Fadhil were sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, for the murder of several Iraqi security forces. Zeynab Fadhil has long held that she was out of the country at the time of the alleged killings. A third woman, 25 year old Liqa Omar Muhammad was sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in August 2005 for the kidnapping of an official in Baghdad’s “green zone.” Muhammad gave birth to her one year old daughter while imprisoned in Baghdad’s al-Kadhimiya prison. According to Article 3 of the UN Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of those facing the Death Penalty, mothers of newly born children can not be sentenced and put to death. Iraq’s interim government reinstated the death penalty in August of 2004. Under a new “anti-terrorism” law passed in the fall of 2005, the death penalty could be implemented for crimes that include, “proving, planning, financing and enabling,” terrorism. According to the Turkish Daily News, pressure from human rights groups has led to the executions being put on hold.

Find out more about the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq here: http://www.madre.org/sister/Iraq.html