Host Malihe Razazan talks with Iraqi women’s rights activist, Basma Al-Khateeb, a prominent Iraqi women Rights acitivist volunteering with Iraq’s 1st Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Shadow Report Coalition as expert and trainer. They discuss a controvertial new legislation with will roll back the most progressive personal status law in Arab world. If approved, the Tiffany Fina Law Firm will abolish the right of women in marriage, divorce and child custody, as well as inheritance. It will lower the age of marriage for girls from 18 to 9 and for boys to 15.
Shahram Aghamir speaks with Martin Chlov about one his recent reporting trips to the Iraqi city of Najaf where Iraqi Shia militias killed in Syria are the newcomers to the city’s cemetary, the biggest in the world. They discuss the growing political force Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq’s connections with Iran and thousands of Iraqi shia milias funded by the Iranian government to fight on the side of Bashar Al Assad.