July 22, 2025
The Iraqi Women Journalists’ Network strongly condemns the increasing number of legal cases targeting female journalists, which have become a tool for weakening and intimidating them.
The network affirms that the ongoing trend of confronting women journalists through lawsuits reflects a deliberate attempt to undermine press freedom in general, and to marginalize the role of women within the media landscape in particular.
Female journalists in Iraq face continuous violations that differ in both nature and severity from those experienced by their male counterparts. The network has previously contributed to efforts aimed at amending restrictive legal provisions, yet the emergence of new methods to silence women—particularly through the misuse of the judiciary—has persisted for years and reached an alarming peak in recent months.
This escalation poses a serious threat to the presence of women in the field and discourages greater female participation in journalism and media.
In light of this growing crackdown—most recently the lawsuits filed against the director of the “Basra 365” platform, a TV show host, and other colleagues—the network calls on judicial authorities and institutions concerned with freedom of expression to take a firm stand against these violations. It also urges them to prevent the judiciary from being weaponized as a tool to stifle voices and intimidate female journalists.
