Canada’s national broadcaster CBC reported this week that the Canadian government will soon announce a plan to increase the number of police they have in Iraq from four to 20 and they will prioritize training female Iraqi police to improve policing efforts related to domestic violence and human trafficking.
“As military operations to recapture Mosul progress, the government of Iraq is looking beyond immediate security needs and toward the sustainable reform of its security institutions, including the rebuilding of Iraq's police forces,” read a briefing note for Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, as seen by CBC.
The Canadian police would reportedly be committed in Iraq until March 31, 2019.
The chair of Nineveh’s provincial council welcomed the news. Bashar Hameed Mahmood al-Kiki told Rudaw that they need more female police officers to help with inspecting women at checkpoints and the like.
In the final days of the Mosul offensive, tens of women suicide bombers blew themselves up in the city.
Kiki said Iraq will soon announce it is hiring 2,000 new police for the province of Nineveh. Applications will be open to women, he said.
For the women of Mosul, they are confident that more female police officers will help keep their city safe.
A former school principal from Mosul, who asked to remain anonymous, told Rudaw she believes the women of Mosul can provide security for other women. They proved that during military operations in the city, she said, when women bravely removed books from the university library to protect them. The library was burned by ISIS and bombed by the coalition, destroying many of the rare books housed there.
ISIS abuse of Yezidi women is well-documented, but much less is known of their crimes against Sunni Muslim women, Human Rights Watch stated in a report in February.
Experts told the rights monitor that it is difficult to assess acts of violence committed against women, “victims and their families remain silent to avoid stigmatization and harm to the woman or girl’s reputation.”
The few women who spoke to Human Rights Watch reported torture, forced marriage, rape, and ill-treatment.
Not enough is being done to support victims of gender-based violence and address the stigma that the women face.
Of the more than 600,000 police in Iraq, just 10,000 to 12,000 are women, CBC reported.
