An Iraqi woman selling chickens on the streets

By Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, June 13 (IslamOnline.net) – Amid moribund economic conditions under the U.S.-led occupation, many Iraqi widows and wives of prisoners and unemployed Iraqis have been forced to seek inferior jobs to make ends meet.

One year after the American tanks rolled into their oil-rich country to "liberate" them, Iraqis' hopes of a better and prosperous life have been dashed by a crippling occupation.

Many complain that their country is now worse off than before the U.S.-led invasion.

"Of course, it is worse under the occupation," widow Um Abdullah told IslamOnline.net.

"The deplorable economic conditions after the toppling of the former regime of Saddam Hussein forced me to work as a housemaid," said the mother of six.

Um Mahmmoud, 45, is another widow, who had to work as a house-to-house peddler after her husband passed away.

"Price hikes and back-breaking living costs forced me to work as a peddler to eke out a living and support my four children," said the one-time pampered wife.

Rabab Ghaleb, a 36-year-old secretary, can hardly make ends meet.

"I used to earn 15,000 dinars under Saddam, but now my salary is over 100,000 and yet I can hardly manage on it due to the mind-boggling prices (one dollar equals 1450 dinars)," she remarked.

Other widows could not help but sell chicken and chicks on the streets, while some others joined factories of hand-made rugs.

No Better 

The wives of Iraqi prisoners and Baathists have by no means a better life.

Um Qatiba is now the breadwinner of her eight-year-old son after her husband and elder son were detained by the U.S. forces.

The mother and the son are now running the father’s grocery to make a living.

Nada is the wife of former colonel in the dissolved Iraqi army. He is no jobless after serving 15 years in the military.

"I have a part-time job in the heritage authority and I have to go all they way and take all dangers into my stride for the sake of my husband and four children," said the grief-stricken woman.

Thousands of Iraqis were laid off when Bremer announced on May 23, the dissolution of the Iraqi army and several ministries.

The fired chief army officers turned into sellers and drivers to make ends meet after the dissolution, which law experts along with human rights activists called unfair and illegal.

Zainab Saleh braves the deteriorating security situation under the U.S.-led occupation as she commutes daily from her home to work.

"My father drives me to work every day. It is dangerous out there," she stressed.

Economic experts had said that the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq left some 10 million Iraqis in both the private and public sectors jobless.

Last June, hundreds of unemployed Iraqis demonstrated in the southern city of Basra against the employment of Asian oil workers by U.S. companies.

One year after driving thousands of people jobless in vital service sectors on charges of membership in the ousted Baath party, U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer admitted on April 24 the mistake and decided to rectify it.