Anti-choice misogynist crazies aren’t confined to the U.S. and Canada — religious conservatives kill gynecologists in Iraq, too.
Male gynaecologists are being targeted by Islamic extremists in Iraq as they are accused of invading the privacy of women. Women’s NGOs have raised concerns as there are few women gynaecologists in the country and their male counterparts are scared to continue working.
“Because of the extremists’ religious views, doctors are scared to continue with their work and the number of women gynaecologists is very low and cannot meet the demand,” said Mayada Zuhair, spokeswoman for the Women’ Rights Association (WRA).
“Extremists say that [male] doctors are not allowed to see the private parts of women and two male doctors were reportedly killed last week after leaving their clinics. A message was left near their bodies saying that was the end for any doctor who insists in invading the privacy of Muslim women,” Mayada added.
An Iraqi Medical Association (IMA) spokesman, Walid Rafi, told IRIN it knew of at least 22 male gynaecologists who had been sent threatening letters.
The justification is different, but the outcome is the same: Doctors are dead for doing their jobs. And Iraqi women are the ones who are suffering:
Heath services in Iraq have been seriously undermined by the shortage of doctors. According to the IMA, at least 75 percent of doctors, pharmacists and nurses have left their jobs at universities, clinics and hospitals. Of these, at least 55 percent have fled abroad.
“There are days when we find more than 80 patients per doctor in our hospital, an average of 170 daily. All of them are divided among the two women gynaecologists who are left in our clinic,” said Afaf Abdul-Qahar, a gynaecologist at Karada Maternity Centre, in the capital.
Glad to see we’re exporting American values so thoroughly.