ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines the women's struggle with life in detention as they survived food deprivation, illness, birth, death of children, and the threat of sexual abuse. It addresses the problems faced by women survivors of the gas attacks that were launched between April 1987 and September 1988. The book discusses women's hard labour, how they managed the change of status, faced social problems, and dealt with the consequences of poverty for themselves and their children. It provides an overview of Kurdish women's experiences and their understandings of what happened to them during the different stages of Anfal and in the aftermath. The book draws on research interviews carried out between 2005 and 2010. According to Weber gender and class are socially constructed power relationships which empower one group and disempowered another. Various women's organizations were approached, as well as Anfal NGO's, activists, and governmental organizations.
