document · Interview
Yanar Mohammed (Iraqi feminist; founder/director, Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq) — interview (Toward Freedom / Guernica, 11 May 2007): OWFI as "the modern, secular voice of Iraq that will not allow this country to be turned into another Afghanistan under the Taliban," and a critique that "women's welfare is... a card... used between misogynist parties," with "most women in government represent Sharia."
English 
Iraq 2007-05-11 Tier 2 — primary or translation
Politician: Yanar Mohammed
Original source: https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/women/first-victims-of-freedom-an-interview-with-iraqi-feminist-yanar-mohammed/
Content
We formed in 2003, and spoke about full equality. We represent the modern, secular voice of Iraq that will not allow this country to be turned into another Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Women’s welfare is like another card that is used between misogynist parties to pressure each other.
Most women in government represent Sharia. English translation
[Source is English (Toward Freedom, republishing a Guernica interview conducted by phone in English, 11 May 2007); editorial context, not a translation.] Declared positions of Yanar Mohammed — Iraqi feminist and communist, co-founder and director of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), which since 2003 has run Iraq's first independent women's shelters (against honour killing, trafficking and domestic abuse), published the newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality), and campaigned for a secular state and women's equality. She defines OWFI as "the modern, secular voice of Iraq that will not allow this country to be turned into another Afghanistan under the Taliban," and condemns the post-2003 sectarian order in which "women's welfare is... a card... used between misogynist parties to pressure each other" and "most women in government represent Sharia" — naming BOTH Shiite and Sunni Islamist militias as the threat to women. This is the secular, communist-feminist, anti-sectarian civil-society pole of Iraqi politics — distinct from the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish party blocs documented elsewhere, and a rare women's voice in the dataset. (Per news reports she was killed by gunmen in Baghdad in early 2026 — NOT confirmed from the fetched interview sources; this document preserves her declared positions.) [Axes: religion-state (strongly secular / anti-Sharia personal-status law), women's rights / gender equality, sectarianism (anti-sectarian — names Shiite and Sunni Islamists alike), regime-stance, economic (communist / left).]
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In-text
(Mohammed, 2007) Mohammed, Y.. (2007). Yanar Mohammed (Iraqi feminist; founder/director, Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq) — interview (Toward Freedom / Guernica, 11 May 2007): OWFI as "the modern, secular voice of Iraq that will not allow this country to be turned into another Afghanistan under the Taliban," and a critique that "women's welfare is... a card... used between misogynist parties," with "most women in government represent Sharia.". towardfreedom.org. Retrieved July 28, 2026, from https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/women/first-victims-of-freedom-an-interview-with-iraqi-feminist-yanar-mohammed/
Mohammed, Yanar. 2007. "Yanar Mohammed (Iraqi feminist; founder/director, Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq) — interview (Toward Freedom / Guernica, 11 May 2007): OWFI as "the modern, secular voice of Iraq that will not allow this country to be turned into another Afghanistan under the Taliban," and a critique that "women's welfare is... a card... used between misogynist parties," with "most women in government represent Sharia."." towardfreedom.org. Accessed July 28, 2026. https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/women/first-victims-of-freedom-an-interview-with-iraqi-feminist-yanar-mohammed/.
@misc{doc-document-e0ef6982-f3ad-407f-a4ac-fdec00bb4af7,
author = {Mohammed, Yanar},
title = {Yanar Mohammed (Iraqi feminist; founder/director, Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq) — interview (Toward Freedom / Guernica, 11 May 2007): OWFI as "the modern, secular voice of Iraq that will not allow this country to be turned into another Afghanistan under the Taliban," and a critique that "women's welfare is... a card... used between misogynist parties," with "most women in government represent Sharia."},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-05-11},
howpublished = {Online; hosted at towardfreedom.org},
url = {https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/women/first-victims-of-freedom-an-interview-with-iraqi-feminist-yanar-mohammed/},
urldate = {2026-07-28},
note = {Retrieved via Tayyar at https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/documents/e0ef6982-f3ad-407f-a4ac-fdec00bb4af7},
} Retrieved via Tayyar: https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/documents/e0ef6982-f3ad-407f-a4ac-fdec00bb4af7 on July 28, 2026. Tayyar is a research host for primary sources, not the author of this document.