ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi women joined anti-government activists in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on Thursday to demand equality and reject Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s demand for gender segregation of protesters.



Protesters have occupied public spaces in Iraq’s southern and central cities since October 1 to demand an overhaul of the political system and a better life.



Women have played a core role in the movement, nursing wounded protesters, painting murals, and cooking for those camped out – defying the norms of an otherwise deeply conservative society.



Like their male counterparts, female protesters have faced violent repression by security forces and pro-government militias. Many have been abducted or shot dead, leading the majority to stay home. On Thursday they returned in force.



“The ultimate goal is to establish women’s role, for their voice to descend [on the squares] and demand their rights. We are the ones coming to obtain our rights. It shouldn’t be that we must sit in our homes while the men go and get us our rights,” Ban Aaraji, the organizer of the march, told Rudaw.



“On October 2, I remember women descended [on the squares] to create a [protective barrier] for the young men, but they were assaulted. But after [October] 25, we saw women’s role, her voice, and what she has done,” protester Fatimah Ramadhan told Rudaw.



Most of the women who marched on Thursday were university and school students. Slogans included “stop discrimination against women” and “end gender segregation” and “women are revolution, not genitals”.



“We are part of this society, this homeland, and the part damaged by displacement, being victims of Daesh, laws,” another protester told Rudaw, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (ISIS).



She called for new legislation to ban “al-Nahu Wal Fasliyah”. Al-Nahu (prohibition) refers to family members in tribal societies preventing women from getting married to someone outside of the tribe. Al-Fasliya refers to when a woman is forced to marry someone from another tribe as payment for spilled blood to prevent a blood feud.



In a tribal country like Iraq, tribal feuds are not uncommon, and women are largely the ones who suffer as a result. Other archaic practices such as honor killings for infractions as minor as discovering a girl’s relationship with a boy threaten the lives of women.



On top of societal practices, many women have been left vulnerable after losing their homes and their husbands in the ISIS conflict. Yezidi women, in particular, were consigned to sexual slavery after being abducted by the group.



“We also demand laws that establish equality between men and women, and we also ask for criminals, including corrupt politicians, and criminals of honor killings to be put before the courts,” the protester added.



Women withdrew gradually from the anti-government protests after a spate of assaults. One activist, Saba al-Mahdawi, was abducted and held for several days by unknown gunmen.



Thursday’s march and the participation of women in the movement alongside men more generally has been criticized by conservative Shiite leaders, including influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.



The march was largely organized in response to Sadr’s February 8 “Reform Revolution Charter” – an 18 point charter that was designed to set social parameters on the protests.



“Religious, social principles of the country should be taken consideration as much as possible, and for no mixing between the two sexes in protester tents to take place,” Sadr said in his charter.



Reacting to Sadr’s words, one protester told Rudaw: “Women’s play a big role in Tahrir. Because of what was said, that it is prohibited for women to go to Tahrir, we organized a march to come and support our brothers and youth here.”



Sadr for years championed the reform agenda in Iraq, presenting himself as a patriotic Iraqi voice against foreign intervention and against corruption. For years, even at the height of the war against ISIS, Sadr gathered millions of his supporters in Baghdad to march on the fortified Green Zone to demand an end to corruption.



The protests which began in October were largely spontaneous, and Sadr initially supported the cause. He later flip-flopped and ordered his supporters to violently take control of the movement.



“This is wrong. There is already mixing in universities between males and females. Even primary schools are mixed. This [women and men mixing] is a very normal,” said protester Mariyam Saeed.



“Women actually have the right to come out and protest the same as men. They are our sisters,” Ayoub Jamal, a male protestor, told Rudaw.



Sadr attacked the all-female march on Twitter, calling it sinful, immoral and licentious and against Iraqi values, likening it to religious extremism.



“We today are committed to prevent Iraq from becoming like Kandahar for religious extremism, and neither Chicago for liberation, moral decadence, homosexuality for the licentious and immoral,” Sadr said.



“I advise these aberrant bunches of the Daesh of civility and liberation not to follow their animal instincts and fleeting lusts. We won’t stand by and watch while religious belief and homeland are abused,” Sadr warned.

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