Yanar Mohammed is co-founder and Chair of the Orga­ni­za­tion of Wom­en’s Free­dom in Iraq. Found­ed in 2003, OWFI pro­vides shel­ters, schools, jobs, a news­pa­per and radio pro­grams to help and strength­en women in Iraq and advo­cate for their rights. Marge May, a host of the pro­gram Wom­en’s Win­dows on com­mu­ni­ty radio WERU-FM, inter­viewed Yanar in 2005. On return­ing to Iraq in 2003 after years in Cana­da, Yanar was shocked by the mas­sive infra­struc­ture destruc­tion, impuni­ty for mur­der­ers of women, and a US-imposed polit­i­cal sys­tem that gave pow­er to male lead­ers of sects and fac­tions and had no room for wom­en’s sec­u­lar issues or rep­re­sen­ta­tion. For more on OWFI today, vis­it owfi​raq​.org.