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So many Iraqi women have been killed for having a voice. Tomorrow, it could be one of us

the Guardian·Hala Abdullah·about 1 month ago
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I remember the exact moment my colleague said: “Yanar has been assassinated .” Our editor-in-chief immediately replied: “Is this confirmed?” A moment of silence followed. Yanar Mohammed, the Iraqi women’s rights activist, was known to us all. No one dared to write anything. This has always been the case with our team – a pause to absorb the shock, to confront what it means to dare to oppose, to be different, to try to make change. “It’s confirmed. I called her colleagues.” In the hours that followed, the atmosphere shifted. There was an eerie sense of death hovering over us. As a small team, mostly made up of young people still finding their way in journalism and activism, that silence felt heavy – almost defeating. Could this be one of us tomorrow? Would my colleagues write about me one day? For what? For defending another woman like me? Is this how we all – those who are like Yanar – might end? When we started making calls to Yanar’s colleagues, it was the same terrified answer: “Who are you?…

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