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Domestic violence is one of the most dangerous threats to the health and well-being of children and adolescents globally. According to the Pan American Health Organization, around 1 in 2 children around the world, between the ages of two and 17 years old, endure some form of violence in home or at school each year. In Iraq, this climbs to 4 out of 5 children, yet the real numbers are likely much higher due to under-reporting and a lack of reliable community research.
"It is a normalized epidemic in Iraq. In 2021, over 1,140 cases of family-indicted violence against children were reported in Iraq. Disappointingly, these statistics don’t even touch the surface of the child abuse that occurs within rural, semi-urban, and impoverished communities due to the historic lack of inclusive research and outreach efforts on family violence," said Nojus Saad, an Iraqi human rights advocate and president and CEO of Youth For Women Foundation, an organization which delivers policy reformation campaigns and conducts community research initiatives in marginalized and rural communities of Iraq, India, and France.
He is spearheading this issue on both a national and international level, working to raise awareness of the lasting psychological damage family abuse can have, and using digital technologies to change the community mindsets and social systems that often facilitate such violence.
In Iraq, corporate punishment is still legal and the country’s Penal Code grants males the right to physically discipline their children. Saad, who is also Vice Chair of PMNCH Adolescents and Youth constituency, believes oftentimes both physical and emotional violence is perpetrated in Iraqi families in the name of family honor and cultural norms.
Here he explains why the problem is so pervasive in his country, the ways he’s working to address it, and how PMNCH can help.
For adolescents in Iraq, what are the biggest challenges?
Surviving adolescence is hard. Many are affected by bullying, the toxic effects of social media, depression and anxiety, peer pressure, sexual identity, and even abuse. Survival is almost impossible in abusive households and conflict hotspots like Iraq.
It’s common for parents everywhere to adopt a mindset where they believe their children owe them a debt, but in a patriarchal and conservative society like Iraq, this mindset is taken to the extreme. That can be because of societal pressure or religious beliefs. It’s also supported by national policies that legalize coercive parenting. This often leads paterfamilias to exhibit controlling behaviors, especially when it comes to young women. They might restrict their access to higher education and basic digital services, make decisions about their bodies and everyday choices, or force them to embody the persona of an obedient and religious child rather than who they might be at heart.
For those adolescents who rebel, they can be subjected to ruthless psychological and physical abuse. Aliya, for example, a 15-year-old teenager from Erbil province, was forced to leave school at 12 years old to marry a man she never met. Last year, after escaping this abusive relationship, her father fatally shot her six times.
Oftentimes, murders take place in the name of “family honor.” There are almost 500 cases of honor killings recorded by hospitals every year in Iraqi Kurdistan. This widely justified practice protects the perpetrators by their families registering such murders as “suicide” or “self-immolation.”
What longer-term impact can abuse in the home have on children and adolescents?
It leads to a failed generation of youth who are too “damaged” or traumatized to ever realize their full health and career potentials. Many will inevitably repeat and perpetuate the abusive behaviors their parents and others normalized.
Many Iraqi children and young people suffer from low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and trauma spectrum disorders because of the conflict, economic crisis, and social unrest that surrounds them. Compounding this with violence in the home only makes things worse.
At the same time, in Iraq there is a lack of community education, effective policy, and basic mental health services, which means young people have very little by way of support.
How did you end up working in this area?
Growing up in a conservative and conflict-affected town in Iraq myself, my childhood was haunted by the sight and sound of men abusing their wives and children everywhere in my community. No nonprofit ever reached my town to educate people on this oppressive mindset. There were no medical, legal, or psychological services nor shelter programs to support victims.
This bothered me and so at the age of 17, I founded an international humanitarian organization called Youth for Women Foundation. Since 2018, our team of 12 people has directly and positively impacted the lives of almost 5,000 women and children in 51 rural and underserved communities of Iraq, India, and France by conducting rural research on domestic abuse, hosting youth trainings on human rights and digital literacy, and informing and reforming national polices. We have also empowered more than 550 diverse community stakeholders to become frontline activists as part of a nationwide campaignfor the implementation of a domestic violence policy.
In 2021, we also joined PMNCH, the largest alliance for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and wellbeing and as the vice chair of PMNCH’s Adolescents and Youth Constituency, I proudly represent the voices and struggles of adolescents, and champion global investments in a healthy and digitally-inclusive rural world.
What do you think needs to be done to better support children and adolescents in Iraq?
We need to intensively educate parents and children about the lifelong impact and dangers of child abuse. We need to demand governments and national stakeholders to invest and expand emergency and mental health resources and personnel in every corner of Iraq. We need to educate parents on how to best parent and care for different child groups. We need parents to listen and understand that children are not a luxury, but are a gift; that respect is earned and it goes both ways; and that unconditional love is a right, not a privilege.
In 2023, we are also showing the world that adolescents are the experts when it comes to their own health and human rights; and are holding those authoritarian figures accountable for any decisions they make about our lives. We are doing this by championing our voices and stories through PMNCH’s 1.8 Billion campaign and the Global Forum for Adolescents in October 2023.
