Iraqi Women Live Under Threat of Violence
by Jeremy Lovell, Reuters News

Nearly two years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraqi women are living under the threat of extreme violence and sexual abuse, the human rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday.

In a report entitled "Iraq -- Decades of Suffering," it said that while the systematic repression under Saddam Hussein had ended, it had been replaced by increased murders and sexual assaults -- including by U.S. forces.

Washington promised that the overthrow of Saddam would free the Iraqi people from years of oppression and set them on the road to democracy. But Amnesty said post-war insecurity had left women at risk of violence and curtailed their freedoms.

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