Women's History Month

 

When Yanar Mohammed returned to Iraq in 2003, there were zero shelters for women fleeing honor killings, trafficking, and abuse. She built the first one with her life savings. Over the next 22 years, that single shelter grew into a network of 11 safe houses across five cities -- saving 1,400 lives.

Last Monday, on March 2, six days before International Women's Day, Yanar was assassinated outside her home in Baghdad. The forces she had spent decades fighting finally silenced her -- but the international women's rights community has answered the call she always made: for solidarity, for visibility, and for her life-saving work for women to continue.

Born in Baghdad in 1960, Yanar Mohammed trained as an architect -- but it was the injustice she witnessed from childhood that would define her life. When war and economic collapse devastated Iraq in the early 1990s, she fled to Canada with her husband and young son, building a quiet life in Toronto. But exile never sat easily with her.

When the U.S. invasion came in 2003, she wrote to her mother explaining why she had to go back -- she could not watch Iraq go back to "the times of my grandmother," where the politics of the post-invasion era were handing power to men who would leave millions of women vulnerable. She crossed the Tigris River by rowboat to go home. She was done being an architect -- Yanar was going to build something else entirely.

What she built was unprecedented. Yanar used her life savings to found OWFI -- the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq -- the first organization to open women's shelters in central and southern Iraq, protecting women from honor killings, trafficking, and domestic abuse in a country where no such refuge had ever existed.

"My work is focused on protecting women in Iraq from the crimes of patriarchy," she said -- and the crimes were staggering. She wrote at the time: "Millions of women are being displaced in Iraq at this moment. They are vulnerable to trafficking because of poverty and having to feed their children. We also have extreme violence against women under ISIS. We try to deal with all of it."

And she did -- for years. She interviewed 200 women in Iraqi prisons, helping save at least one from a death sentence. She launched a feminist newspaper, a radio station, and courses training women to become human rights defenders themselves.

"Our shelters are not only a place for women to rest and feel safe," Yanar declared. "They are schools for social transformation -- for women to turn from victims into defenders of rights."

By 2024, her shelters had protected and empowered 1,400 women. Human Rights Watch called her "one of Iraq's most courageous advocates for women's rights." Agnes Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, called her simply "one of our icons."

She paid for that work by living in constant danger. Death threats arrived almost immediately -- from militias, from ISIS, from Islamist armed groups. The Iraqi government filed lawsuits trying to dissolve her organization, accused her of human trafficking, and forced her to flee the country more than once.

"The government starts with smear campaigns," she warned in 2023, "then court cases -- and if that doesn't work, they kidnap and kill you." But she always came back. "She faced constant threats," said Callamard after her death, "but she never stopped." Her colleague Arwa Damon, former CNN correspondent, remembered her as someone who "exuded a strength that gave strength to those around her."

Yanar Mohammed's assassination has sent shockwaves through the global women's rights community. This International Women's Day, advocates, governments, and human rights organizations around the world are demanding justice in her name. The European Union, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland issued a joint statement honoring her memory, reaffirming their commitment to "the values of equality, justice, and inclusion for which she stood."

Amnesty International called her killing "a calculated assault to stifle human rights defenders," and its Secretary-General Agnes Callamard declared: "She spent her life standing up for women's rights in the most dangerous environment. She faced constant threats, but she never stopped. And today we cry and mourn her energy, her commitment, her profound humanity, her amazing courage."

The Rafto Foundation, which awarded her Norway's prestigious human rights prize, called it "an attack on the fundamental values she dedicated her life to defending: women's freedom, democracy, and universal human rights." The Iraqi government has opened an investigation. The world is watching.

Even in the face of constant threats, Yanar Mohammed's defining belief never wavered: "We women are capable of knowing what is best for us, our families, and our communities." She proved it every day for 22 years -- in the shelters she built, the women she saved, and the movement she refused to let die.

That movement is still standing. OWFI has pledged to keep the safe houses open. And MADRE, Yanar's decades-long partner in this work, has launched the Yanar Mohammed Feminist Defense Fund -- "Yanar's Fund" -- to make sure they can.

The Fund covers emergency relocation for activists now facing threats, security upgrades, legal defense, and the leadership development needed to carry her work forward. The immediate goal is $500,000. The long-term vision is a permanent endowment that will honor Yanar's legacy for generations.

The most powerful thing we can do this International Women's Day is make sure the institutions Yanar built to protect and empower women survive.

To support Yanar Mohammed Feminist Defense Fund, visit https://support.madre.org/campaign/776576/donate

To learn more about the work of her group, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, visit https://www.owfiraq.org/

-----

For children's books about extraordinary global women, visit our blog post "50 Children's Books About Mighty Girls & Women Around The World" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=33102

To inspire children and teens with the true stories of girls and women who dared to fight for change throughout history, check out our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364

For an excellent guide for girls on how to make real change on the issues they can care, we highly recommend "A Smart Girl's Guide: Making A Difference" for ages 8 to 12 at https://www.amightygirl.com/smart-girl-s-guide-making-a...

For kids in general, we also recommend "How to Make a Better World: For Every Kid Who Wants to Make a Difference" for ages 7 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/how-to-make-a-better-world

For both fictional and biographical books for children and teens that star courageous girls and women, visit our "Courage & Bravery" section at https://amgrl.co/2IUVSzW

To stay connected with A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for our free email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter