It's a main interest of women to stop violence against women in Iraq. From our experience with more than 40 organizations in the network for anti-trafficking of Iraqi women, we rarely ran into sectarian differences at meetings. The ones who brought up the sectarian differences were singled out and were told on the spot that this was not the future we were shaping for Iraq. Most women's organizations that we have run into and that we work with have a consensus on ending sectarian differences.
I would like to make the scope of the question larger. You would be surprised at how, in society, the sectarian differences and the conflict are usually politically driven. In 2003 we were told that we should represent ourselves according to our religious identifications. I remember, while in a meeting with a U.S. and a U.K. gender expert when I was speaking about women's issues, she told me to go to the mullah of my group, the cleric, the religious head of my group, and to talk to.... It was clear throughout the years that the religious political parties were the ones who were empowered and pushed toward the Parliament.
It was political planning for Iraq that imposed the sectarian differences. If the Parliament formula changes, and it becomes more open for groups from the grassroots to be candidates, without all the restrictions being put on the elections, you'll be surprised. Society doesn't want sectarianism, but the political parties, especially those who are supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran, are the bigger winners in this game. Those who have a sectarian agenda, who caused half of the country to split, also caused ISIS to have nice social support for them.
Women will definitely stand against the sectarian differences, and so will the civil society institutions. It's the political parties who are supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran or by Saudi Arabia who are to the detriment of the Iraqi people. They are the ones we are learning tactics to stand against. It's a tough fight in Iraq, especially when you want to see a secular, egalitarian future. You have to be very careful. You are walking over land mines. You have to be very nice and gentle to killers, to those who have perpetrated massacres, but we feel we stand a chance as civil society institutions.