 My name is Nadia Ali. I'm a professor of gender studies at Sowas University of London. I'm also a feminist activist. I'm a founding member of Act Together, Women's Action for Iraq. And over the last 15 years, I've been trying to document the impact of the Bath regime, sanctions, and more recently the invasion and occupation on women and gender relations in Iraq. And over the years, I've talked to hundreds of Iraqi women. And I have to say that one of the sort of forgotten stories, the costs of war, is the impact it had on women. I mean, in terms of security, the situation is much worse. In terms of gender-based violence starting with domestic violence, rape, trafficking, forced marriages, children, child marriages, we hear only about ISIS and the terrible atrocities, particularly in relation to the Yazidi women. But what we don't hear is that really since 2003, Iraqi women have been subject to various forms of gender-based violence at the hands of government forces, at the hands of those opposed to the government. Occupation forces including the U.S. Army and the British Army. And so there has been a systematic turning of the blind eye towards the various forms of gender-based violence. In addition, there's a very, very large percentage of female-headed households, a very, very large percentage of widows, and those are really struggling economically. And while, you know, prior to the invasion, of course, during the sanctions period, already Iraqi society was suffering economically. But prior to that, Iraqi women were very much involved in the labor force. But now a much smaller percentage of women are actually active in the labor force. Unemployment is a big issue. And just sort of trying to have access to basic services, whether it is clean water or electricity, it's really difficult, especially for the many internally displaced Iraqis. And then finally, in terms of political participation, I mean, women's voices have been systematically sidelined. You know, women are not involved in the decision-making. Although officially there is the quota enshrined in the Iraqi constitution that says that 25% of all representatives should be women. But it's often is not even implemented. You know, despite the fact that, of course, the majority of Iraqis, including women, are very happy for the regime of Saddam Hussein to fall. But we have to really recognize that in terms of the everyday lives, in terms of security, in terms of their mobility, in terms of the dress codes, things have really taken a turn for the worse. And there has been an incredible shift towards social conservatism, which has particularly impacted on women. Young women are very much controlled in terms of where they can go, what they should wear, their friendships. So it's a much, much stricter and more conservative society than it used to be. I have been documenting this both as an academic and I've written several books about the history of Iraqi women and also the impact of the invasion and the occupation. As I said, I'm also an activist. And so I've actually worked with many Iraqi women's rights organizations over the years trying to support them. And I should say that it's also very personal for me because I'm half Iraqi. My father's Iraqi from Baghdad, my mother's German. And so I have family, I have relatives who have been killed. And so this is, you know, it's academic, it's political, but it's also personal. And I feel very strongly that we need to make sure that the stories of Iraqi women are not forgotten.