Northampton Women/Iraqi Women

Celia Miller is best known in Northampton (and throughout the northeast) for her work as a musician. Celia is shown below/right singing at The Elevens with Kim Zombik and the funk band Unit 7. But lately, she and a group of her friends have been raising money and raising consciousness about the atrocities being committed against women in post-invasion Iraq. Recently, they held a house party and raised $150 for the Organization of Womens Freedom in Iraq (OWFI). More events are planned, so keep your eyes open.


Yanar Mohammed is the founder of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. She is a powerful spokesperson in an international campaign to end atrocities against women in that war-torn and increasingly fundamentalist country. Rape, abduction, beheadings, and honor killings by family members have become far more common since the invasion. According to Yanar Mohammed, the Iraqi constitution sanctions Sharia law in family matters, leaving women little or no secular judicial protection. OWFI, as part of its mission, runs secret shelters and operates an underground railway to spirit women out of the country. Yanar Mohammed's life has been threatened repeatedly, yet she continues to openly speak out for women's human rights in Iraq. We spoke to Yanar Mohammed live on the air. Click on the arrow below to use the embedded player, or listen to the file in quicktime by clicking here.