[Dialogue] Today is International Women's Day

[Jim Baumbach]

*Cindy Sheehan Joins Iraqi Women in Peace March to the White House on 
March 8th, International Women's Day
In a rare visit to the US, Iraqi women will deliver an urgent call for 
peace to the Iraqi Embassy and the White House *
 

WASHINGTON - March 7 -

*WHEN:* Wednesday, March 8, 12 Noon

*WHERE:* Meet at the Iraqi Embassy, 1801 P Street, NW. March to the 
White House.

*WHAT:* Gold Star mothers Cindy Sheehan and Elaine Johnson will join a 
delegation of Iraqi women for a peace rally and march from the Iraqi 
Embassy to the White House on Wednesday, March 8, International Women's 
Day. The women will be delivering an urgent call for peace to the White 
House that's been signed by 80,000 women across the globe and urges the 
withdrawal of all foreign troops and foreign fighters from Iraq.

"These women are not politicians, but ordinary Iraqis who are desperate 
to see an end to the escalating violence and are taking great personal 
risk to come to the US," said Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the CODEPINK 
and Global Exchange, the two groups organizing the delegation.

"The Bush administration would never listen to me, but I hope they'll 
listen to these women who've risked their lives to be here and have paid 
such a high price for this war," Cindy Sheehan said.

Sheehan and Benjamin were arrested on Monday during an event with the 
Iraqi women at the UN. The women were trying to deliver a Women's Call 
for Peace to the US mission to the UN, but the US mission refused to 
accept it. The same call will be delivered to members of Congress on 
Tuesday, March 7 and the White House on Wednesday, March 8. It will also 
be delivered to US embassies in 20 countries. The Women's Call for Peace 
requests the withdrawal of all foreign troops and foreign fighters from 
Iraq, negotiations to reincorporate disenfranchised Iraqis, full 
representation of women in the peacemaking process, and a commitment to 
women's equality in the post-war Iraq. For the full text of the call, 
see www.womensaynotowar.org <http://www.womensaynotowar.org>

The delegation of Iraqi women is a diverse group, including Shia, Sunni 
and Kurdish women - some secular, some religious. They arrived in the 
United States on March 5th and will travel throughout the United States 
to tell Americans about the reality of every day life in Iraq. Two Iraqi 
women whose families were killed by US troops were denied visas to enter 
the US as part of the delegation.

"The U.S. occupation has destroyed our country, made it into a prison. 
Schools are bombed, hospitals are bombed," said Entisar Mohammad Ariabi, 
a delegation member who is a pharmacist at Yamook Hospital in Baghdad. 
"We thank you, Mr. Bush, for liberating our country from Saddam. But 
now, go out! Please go out!" she said.

*IRAQI WOMEN'S DELEGATION BIOS*

*Nadje Al-Ali* is a writer/researcher specializing in women in the 
Middle East. She is a founding member of Act Together: Women's Action on 
Iraq and mother of a 3-year-old daughter.

*Faiza Al-Araji* is a civil engineer, blogger 
(afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com 
<http://www.afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com>), religious Shia with a Sunni 
husband, and mother of three. After one son was recently held as a 
political prisoner by the Ministry of the Interior, the family fled to 
Jordan.

*Eman Ahmad Khamas* is a human rights advocate who has documented abuses 
by the US military in Iraq. She is a member of Women's Will, and is 
married with two daughters.

*Dr Entisar Mohammad Ariabi*, a pharmacist at the Yarmook Teaching 
Hospital in Baghdad, has documented the deteriorating health system. She 
is married with five children.

*Sureya Sayadi*, a Kurdish woman born in Kirkuk, is an activist for 
human rights in the Middle East, particularly for the Kurdish people. 
She now lives in the United States, but her family is dispersed in Iraq, 
Iran and Turkey,

*THE FOLLOWING WOMEN WERE DENIED VISAS BY THE US STATE DEPARTMENT *

*Vivian Salim Mati* is a widow who lost her husband and three children 
when they were fired on by U.S. tank fire as they attempted to flee the 
bombing of their neighborhood in Baghdad in April 2003.

*Kadhim Jawad (Anwar)* is a widow whose husband and three children were 
killed by US soldiers at an unmarked checkpoint.

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