BAGHDAD -

“I appeal to the international community, before it is too late, to take a deliberate initiative, within a specific time frame, towards putting pressure on the Iraqi authorities and political decision-makers, to work seriously to overcome the state of political stalemate and divisions among them, and to give priority to the interests of the Iraqi people over their narrow factional interests, and to respect their international obligations to human rights conventions.” With this sentence, Iraqi activist Hana Adwar concluded her speech before the UN Security Council on Tuesday, representing the Iraqi people and the demonstrators.

Ador delivered her speech before the United Nations envoy to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and members of the Security Council, in her capacity as a human rights defender and civil activist in Iraq for many years, where she worked with other humanitarian organizations for many years to achieve Iraqi human rights.

In her speech, Adwar said, "In the face of the bitter and perilous reality we live in, reform and change have become an urgent and immediate need to achieve stability, security and peaceful coexistence among Iraqis, according to a new social contract that guarantees equal citizenship that embraces diversity, social justice and the peaceful transfer of power within the framework of a civil state."

Adwar confirms to Al-Jazeera Net, that in her speech she was nothing but a carrier and defender of the feelings of millions of Iraqis, she criticized and spoke to raise awareness, indicating her continued attempts to achieve the dream of Iraqis to find a decent life, and she considers that the expression is important, and the expressive word resonates resoundingly, and it is important to reach millions outside Iraq , "When I see the keenness of the youth and the new generation for their country, they love their country to the point of giving their lives and lives for the sake of human values. They sacrificed everything for the sake of their country. Do these fighters not deserve to have their voice heard in the world?"

Hanaa Adour asks.

Who is Hana Adour?

Hana Adwar was born in Basra, southern Iraq in 1946, and studied law at the University of Baghdad. Since that time, specifically in 1963, she began her struggle against injustice. She was full of enthusiasm and effective among students through her membership in the General Union of Iraqi Students in the college, and her affiliation with the Iraqi Communist Party.

And she says to Al-Jazeera Net about the Security Council's choice of her to deliver the speech on behalf of the Iraqis, "Perhaps I was chosen for the many years of my work for the sake of man. of struggle."

Adwar had lived many of her years outside Iraq, as a result of the threats and persecutions that affected her because of her affiliation with the Communist Party, and her opposition to previous governments, and she explains through her talk to Al Jazeera Net that she was living in Basra, where she witnessed the hunger experienced by the population, they live in tin houses, and own them Extreme poverty, she did not find justice in her country, from which the idea of ​​living in dignity crystallized, and permanent demands for freedom and Iraqi human rights.

Hana Adwar is one of the first women who took upon themselves the task of defending and calling for the rights of Iraqi women and their equality with men since the late fifties of the last century, when she joined the Iraqi Women’s League and contributed with others to rebuilding the student organization of the Communist Party and the General Union of Iraqi Students.

In this regard, Adwar says: "We did not look at the Iraqi person based on his sect or religion, our relations were good with each other, and we see how people are treated according to beliefs and religions, until successive governments began to strip the Iraqi person of everything, personally, affected by the revolution of 14 July 1958 against injustice, and from there I decided to defend every oppressed."

Ador worked for many years to help people and human rights (Al-Jazeera)

Iraqi Women's League

After the advent of the Baath Party and its control over Iraq as a result of the coup against the government of Abdul Karim Qasim in 1963, Adwar was able to leave the country, as a result of constant threats and accountability, to represent the Iraqi Women’s League in the Democratic Women’s Union in Germany in 1972, and she continued as a member of the union for 10 years, and she has a relationship Strong, Naziha Al-Dulaimi, Minister of Municipalities in the first Iraqi republic after the fall of the monarchy in 1958, and the first female minister in the Arab world and president of the Iraqi Women's League.

In her speech to Al Jazeera Net, Adwar explains that "Dr. Naziha Al-Dulaimi has been my teacher and inspiration since 1967, and she represents for us a fundamental pioneer in the field of human and women's rights, by being the first female minister in the history of the Arab world, and she continued to meet her through the Iraqi Women's Association, but after my return to Damascus in the early eighties, I lived in her house for nearly 3 years, and I am proud that I was able to obtain a humane, feminist experience, one of the most important human rights and activist women in Iraq. She loved Iraq so much that her will to be buried there was very affected by her principles.

In 1985, activist Hana Adwar was able to join the Nazareth Unit, within the Ansar Brigades of the Iraqi Communist Party, which had taken the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan as its headquarters, assuring Al Jazeera Net that what she was really happy about was the extent to which colleagues believed with her about women's rights, in those times. Despite all the repression, she then headed to Damascus to work for a left-wing Arab magazine, Al-Nahj, and then as editorial secretary for the Al-Mada media organization.

Adwar tells Al Jazeera Net that she had founded the Al-Amal Association, concerned with Iraqi human rights and women, in 1992, where she was residing in Syria, and at that time, she was unable to open the association's headquarters in Baghdad, as a result of her opposition to the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein at the time, and she tried During many years, providing moral and material support to thousands of citizens.

And she continues her speech to Al-Jazeera Net, "The process of establishing the association was after the second Gulf War in 1991, and we were thinking of any way to help our people, most of whom began to be displaced through the mountains, or to live in miserable conditions, we wanted something that contributes even a little to alleviating the surgeries, even the name We chose to give hope."

Man building before stone

The association’s headquarters became in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which was outside the authority of the regime at the time, and they began to provide relief to people and human rights, and for the sake of sympathy, Hana Adwar is proud of the introduction of gender, and the term gender into Iraq, in appreciation of the various components.

Adwar, who dreamed of opening a branch of the association in Baghdad, was able to do so in 2003 and immediately after the war, and says in her talk to Al Jazeera Net about the association and its goals, "We were able to build a civil society movement, which did not exist and after us started to grow, because it is necessary, any change must be The existence of civil society movements, not just parties, to make a citizen think of his rights without being absent.”

She was the role of the founder of the Hope Society, and its president, but today she is only a member of the association at her request, justifying her commitment to the system and the issue of leadership renewal, "without it we cannot succeed. I am proud that I founded Hope, but I am a member of this association today."

Adwar (center) while participating in the anti-corruption protests (Al-Jazeera)

How do Iraqis remember it?

The Iraqis consider Adwar to be one of the national features, and enjoy the love of the various spectrums of the people for what it has provided and accomplished for many through Al-Amal Association or its continuous defense of people’s rights. To confront them with files of arrests and violations against young activists and to shout in front of the crowds a question about the fate of the arrested protesters, to demand their release, and to respond to their legitimate demands.

Adwar was hit by a speeding car, which led to her injury in the basin and head areas, after a speech she gave in Baghdad in 2019 on the anniversary of the fall of the city of Mosul at the hands of the Islamic State, after she finished a speech in which she stressed the need to hold accountable those who were negligent in the Speicher incident, which claimed 1,700 lives. An Iraqi soldier and the fall of the city of Mosul to the organization of the state.

Human rights activist #HanaAdour was run over in Baghdad by "accidental" on the same day she gave a speech about the fall of #Mosul in the hands of ISIS!


The activist had previously clashed with former Prime Minister #Nuri_Al-Maliki due to issues related to human rights, knowing that Al-Maliki was the prime minister at the time of ISIS control pic.twitter.com/9aOgX0P8s3

- Omar Al-Janabi (@omartvsd) June 14, 2019

Important prizes

In 2011, Adwar was awarded the McBride Global Peace Office Award, and in December of the same year she was classified as a distinguished human rights defender by the United Nations agency in Iraq, and Takreem awarded her the title of "The First Arab Woman" for the year 2013. For her civil efforts for Iraqi women.

Member of the Board of Trustees of Al-Amal Society Zain Al-Abidin Muhammad describes Hana Adwar as working on building society, and targeting youth education, regarding issues of war conflicts and the values ​​of acceptance among the spectrum of society.

Muhammad added, "The teacher, Adwar, has struggled to raise a new society. She has always struggled for a democratic and pluralistic Iraq. I have known her for many years, and today I am with her in the association. Without her, I would not have imagined that my thoughts toward Iraq would be like today, where we aspire for change and love for the country."