My Letter to my Congressman about the War Against Women in Iraq

We're not all writers, so I'm offering the letter I composed to my Congressmen as an example of how you might frame your discussion with your Congresspeople about this issue. The one major change you'd want to make is to say you're a member of WILPF (if you're not a fellow board member).

Find your Congressman (you'll need your full zip code, including the last four digits, which you can get by entering your address at Mapquest.)
http://www.house.gov

Write Your Senators.

Write the President.

Write the Secretary of State.

Write the Secretary of Defense.

As a constituent and national board member of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), I am writing to you in outrage at the way the United States has handled its occupation of Iraq. The military and civilian forces are completely disregarding United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, and have not integrated women into the conflict resolution and nation-building efforts.

The result is a country where a minority radical segment is able to terrorize women. Women are being raped and murdered for refusing to wear a veil. Their murders are committed with impunity, leading me to believe women, who are 60% of the Iraqi population, are somehow considered less important than their male counterparts.

It is imperative that you and your fellow members of Congress pressure the military and diplomatic U.S. occupation forces to immediately increase their interaction with women and stop this war on Iraqi women.

For more information, please see Leslie Abdela's article "Iraq's War on Women," available at:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-iraqconflict/women_2681.jsp

I appreciate your response to let me know what you are doing to end this war against women.

Sincerely,
Cynthia Minster
http://wilpf.blogspot.com

cc: Congress person's name, Senator Name, Senator Name, Secretary Rice, Secretary Rumsfeld, President Bush