Peggy Plum and I just went to a meeting of 19 ladies who like me are here in Iraq with their husbands. They call themselves tailers because they trail their husbands all around the world with big oil. Some of them are from the US, Uk, Australia and Canada. On Monday's we get together to play Mahjong. 

Anyway they were together today to discuss working with an organization called Heartland Alliance out of the US. This organization is works mainly with at risk populations. They are concerned with torture, self immolation and trafficking. Torture is prevalent and extreme in Iraq and the IKR (Iraqi, Kurdistan region). Tomorrow is a conference for the Commission against torture. They are wanting to draft an anti torture law for the whole Iraqi region.

Self immolation is the practice of setting yourself on fire. This is a form of suicide for women who have no self worth and no control over their lives. Although most of the time it is not suicide it is forced honor killing which is rampant through out the Middle East. Solomonia, a large region south of Erbil, has the highest rate of honor killing in the IKR.

Trafficking is alive and well in Kurdistan especially within the Syrian refugee camps and also with children who are organized and exploited to beg. Syrian women are being preyed upon in the refugee camps and Syrian families are selling their young women to these traffickers for money to support the family. At this point the woman or girl becomes a prostitute and is now a criminal in the eyes of the law and she has shammed the family and the community so she has no where to go to escape. There is so much that needs to be done to protect women and children in the Middle East.
Tonight we are going to a Chili cook off fund raiser for another human rights organization here in Erbil.