Yanar Mohammed is a member of the Committee for the Defence of Iraqi Women’s Rights. She lived in Iraq through the horror of the 1991 Gulf War. Now in Canada, she is part of an international network of Iraqi women organizing to end the sanctions against the country and stop the war.

rabble caught up with Mohammed after her powerful speech to the 8,000 people assembled at Queen’s Park in Toronto for the Don’t Attack Iraq rally this past Saturday.

rabble: You have said that Iraqi women thought that Saddam Hussein’s regime was bad until the American bombs started dropping during the 1991 Gulf War. Can you describe what the threat of a new war means for Iraqis?

Yanar Mohammed: Saddam has brought horror to the people. But Iraqi women and children did not experience real horror until the American airplanes dropped the bombs. The bombs were dropped over our houses, over the shelters that we were hiding in. And they have kept up this horror until this very day. The bombing has never stopped. Sanctions have killed 1.5 million Iraqis, half-a-million of them were children. The women and children of Iraq are suffering until this very day.

rabble: So the way to stop the horror of Saddam Hussein’s regime is not sanctions or bombs. What is the solution?

Mohammed: The Iraqi people are the solution to the situation. Saddam could not have stayed in power if the sanctions were not there. The sanctions have made the Iraqi people weak and unable to topple the regime. Iraqi people are very rebellious in their nature. They are very political. End the sanctions and isolate Saddam, that is the solution. Had it not been for American support and other countries’ support, he would not have been able to rule us for so long. Our solution is to stop the sanctions and let us lead a normal life, and we will change the situation in Iraqi.

The support of people here is important. They need to address the government in a strong manner that this war cannot be in the name of Canadians.

rabble: Do actions like today’s peace march and those recently held in the United States and Europe give you hope?

Mohammed: We have never lost hope. And we know that the anti-war movement is getting stronger and stronger. We are hosting a conference in the North of Iraq this coming month, and we are all going to try to organize change in Iraq. They cannot cancel us. The Iraqi people will have their way. No strike, no threat, no sanction will end us as a people, we are still there and still here, all working together.