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Woman's rights crusader killed in Iraq

US troops frisk motorists at a mobile checkpoint in Baghdad, Iraq, before dawn yesterday. US troops and Iraqis working for the coalition forces are the target of almost daily attacks by insurgents. PHOTO: AP

Iraqi women struggling for a better future lost a major ally this week when armed attackers, possibly policemen, shot dead a US woman's rights crusader and two colleagues in central Iraq.

Wiping tears from their eyes, a group of female volunteers at a women's center in Karbala, 110km south of Baghdad, told reporters that Fern Holland, 33, was gunned down in her car after paying them a regular visit.

Iraqi police officials said the attackers had been wearing police uniforms and a patrol from the Karbala police department -- which is based opposite the women's center -- had been arrested over the shootings but has yet to be charged.

The FBI has been called in to lead the investigation and it remains unclear why Holland, a Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) employee, her US colleague Robert Zangas, 44, and their Iraqi translator were targeted on Tuesday evening.

Holland, however, had recently expressed fear for her safety because of the work she was doing to promote women's rights, her brother James was quoted as saying in a local newspaper in her native Oklahoma on Thursday.

"She told one of her friends that she was concerned for her well-being 10 days ago," he told The Oklahoman.

The volunteers at the Zainab al-Hawra'a Center for Women's Rights said the center had never received any threats, but admitted some Iraqis opposed the idea of females enjoying more power in a country steeped in strict Muslim traditions.

"Perhaps the attackers wanted to delay the process of improving women's rights, perhaps they did not like the idea of women being in a position of power," said Amar Arrob, 27, who heads the center.

Holland, a trained lawyer, encouraged Iraqi women to experiment with new-found freedoms following years of oppression under Saddam Hussein.

According to The Oklahoman, Holland helped to draw up the woman's rights section of Iraq's temporary constitution signed this week, which also secures a target of 25 percent female representation in a future parliament.

"She knew the risks, but she was doing what she wanted to do, working to establish human rights for the Iraqi people," said Jim Green, an attorney with Conners and Winters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Holland had worked as a civil litigator in 1999 and again in 2001.

Holland, who arrived in Iraq after the war, set up several women's centers in the country, said the Karbala volunteers.

"We are astonished about the attack. We have worked with Fern since last June," said Arrob, who is also a practising doctor. "She helped us enormously in the work we are trying to do to improve women's rights in Iraq."

Holland not only coordinated the planning for the center, which is located in a former Baathist party building opposite Karbala's police station, but she also physically lugged furniture and carpets into the office space where seven volunteers help dozens of local women find jobs and improve their education.

"Fern would not hurt anybody, all she did was serve the Iraqi society, everyone who heard about the incident started crying," said Arrob.

Holland, however, chose to wear western clothes despite being advised by the volunteers to use Arab-style cloaks and veils to blend in with most Iraqi women, said Bushra el-Hilari, 39, a coordinator at the center.

And she visited the center in the holy city of Karbala -- a highly conservative city and also the site of a deadly bombing at the start of the month -- at least once a week for meetings without a security escort, she added.

"She was a very brave women," Hilari said, adding that the American had been due back at the center today.

Despite their loss, the volunteers in Karbala pledged to continue the work Holland helped them start by encouraging more Iraqi females -- many of whom spend their lives indoors raising a family -- to speak out and be heard.

"We are just beginning to make a new society in Iraq, it will take time," Arrob said.
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