Interview with Yanar Mohammed

Published in Communist Youth, March 28

1. What is the latest about this mass murdering that
is going on in Iraq? What are we not hearing from the
media?

The so called "liberation" or "freedom" military campaign on Iraq is in fact a "termination" or "slaughter" campaign in the eyes of Iraqi people. Hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed so far in the pretext of democratization, when in fact it is merely achieving political goals for the sole super power in the world to establish the cornerstone for the New World Order. Most of the casualties are from the cities of Basrah and Baghdad, where the mothers of the dead children had their screams heard world-wide,"...what did we do to them to deserve all of this... all we wanted was peace, and they start with killing our children."

2. How are your feelings, can you go to sleep at
nights? Have you heard anything from your family
inside Iraq?
The shocking CNN images of March 20th (3-20) revived memories of unforgotten disaster - the bombings of 1991 Desert Storm - that had devastated our lives irreversibly. Still, the war-mongering military machine of capitalism is determined to scar the lives of another generation in Iraq. All my relatives and friends in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Erbil undergo daily terrorism by air strikes at levels unprecedented (except in Vietnam and World War II). The city of Basrah is under siege at this moment with no electricity, drinking water or functioning hospital which triggers the beginning of health crises in addition to unavailability of provisions, as they will run out of food rations in the coming week.

We are extremely disturbed at their news and their agony that will be very hard to overcome, especially after 12 years of deprivation under economic sanctions.

3.AS a member of the wcpi can you tell us what your
party is doing regarding this war?
We were fully aware of the consequences since the beginnings of this campaign, the preparations for which started following the war on Afghanistan. We have warned all Iraqi opposition of the real motives behind this campaign, in addition to clarifying the suspicious role of some pro-American groups that support the inhuman and criminal war and economic sanctions. We have also taken part in all antiwar gatherings. Still, our major challenge becomes clear and urgent inside Iraq, where the task of spreading our activists among the working class and the deprived in order to organize and enlighten the masses within a political progressive, libertarian and egalitarian platform, within our socialist and secular vision that leads to realizing our Worker Communist vision.
4.What do you think of the future of Iraq? What is
the chance for the worker-communism?
As you know, Iraq is now divided into parts. In the Northern part that is under the rule of the Nationalist Kurdish parties, our party had considerable achievements a few years back. That society is searching for our presence among them. In a recent statistic, it turned out that our party is the most popular and credible political group as opposed to all others. We have earned our position and respect out of our uncompromising enmity to the Islamists and the Nationalists. In the center and the south of Iraq, we still need more time to disperse and influence and, in many areas, just to reconnect with our previous circles. Our current linkage is being handicapped by the ordeal they are going through. We do not encourage the masses to revolt against the American military attack, which will cause tremendous life loss and may preserve the Fascist Baath regime. Our true challenge begins the moment the dust settles down, in dispersing, organizing and steering the protests and rebellions towards the formation of workers councils, of women groups who will be the giant that awakens to take over.

5.What is your role?

I find myself fully immersed in the issue of women's rights. I find it very hard for 10 million women in Iraq to live a status of inferiority under a potential pro American rule that is planning to give way to political Islam to crush all women's aspirations in a decent future. I can only see one single future for women in Iraq; that is one of full equality, socially, economically, legally and especially politically.

I do not see it realizable except under a socialist secular constitution, a goal established in the Worker Communist program that elevates the whole society to a better world.

6.would you please tell us about yourself, I think it
is interesting for our readers: how old are you? What
are you doing? When did you leave Iraq and why? When
did you join the party? 7. What do you want to say to the people of Iran,
especially the youth?
I am a woman from Iraq. I lived most of my life in Baghdad under the Baath regime dictatorship. The weight of dictatorship was unequalled by anything but the hideous inequalities among men and women that were fuelled and ignited by the surrounding Muslim influences. I was burdened by three decades of frustration by the time I left Iraq, which was 2 years after the Desert Storm. I was planning to escape to a safe and modern hiding place somewhere in the west. After working as an architect and a sculptor in exile (mostly in Canada) for the last ten years, I still could not find the freedom I was seeking. Under capitalism, you are working day and night only to achieve and establish your imprisonment in an unbroken cycle of wage slavery. In addition to the dark clouds of political Islam that follow women to the end of the world.

After meeting members from WCPI in 97, I took my time in indulging into literature that seemed utopian to me in the first place. Then, having had exposure to the real experiment in Kurdistan of Iraq where thousands of women were organized and ran their own shelter that saved 250 women from honour killings and also all the radicalization to that part of the world that is surrounded by the darkest regimes over the earth. Reading 'A Better World' over and over again opened my eyes to an achievable future, a practical concrete cause worth fighting for. I had a son of two year old when I left Iraq. He is fourteen now, living in Canada, just like any North American Kid. I do not approve of the world he is living in; we still need to change it.  I want to take part in achieving a better future for the youth and the women, a world with no exploitation or discrimination.

Iraq is undergoing its darkest times in history, simultaneously Iran had suffered two decades of social and intellectual oppression under medieval dark mullahs regime. Still, it is these critical times that may give birth to revolutions, provided we all participate in building it. The youth are humans at their purest intellectual stages, free spirits that cannot be stopped once they put their heart into emancipating humankind from oppression. They deserve a modern life that responds to all their needs and aspirations of freedom. Finally, they are the main ingredients in a revolution and the major winner and recipient of its fruits. All our hopes are in you and in the youth of Iraq.

Yanar Mohammed - Defense of Iraqi Women's Rights   DIWR

Toronto, March 24-2003