Iraq's sectarian war, which followed decades of repression and economic sanctions, has left the country's women marginalised, afraid and prey to increasingly radical ideological factions.
As activists around the world mark International Women's Day, Fatima, a 55-year-old Baghdad gynaecologist, will try as best she can to deal with the needs of the war-weary women crowding her bare waiting room.
"Often, the problems are simply psychological. They come to talk about their husbands who have been killed or being driven out of their neighbourhoods," she told AFP at her surgery. Is the situation getting worse for Iraqi women? "Of course, of course, of course," she replied, as the city's latest daily power cut plunged the sparse treatment room into darkness.
"Pregnant women can't go to hospital if they go into labour during the overnight curfew. More and more of them are dying, along with their babies," she said, apologising for not having precise statistics. In fact, independent figures are hard to find in war-torn Baghdad.
According to UN health agencies, maternal mortality doubled between 1989 and 2001 under the effects of the economic embargo imposed on Saddam Hussein's regime. Since the 2003 US invasion and 2005 elections, Iraq's health ministry has fallen under the control of a radical Shiite Islamist faction loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Now, Fatima says, many Sunni women are scared to attend clinics or travel for treatment through districts controlled by Shiite militias. On the day AFP visited the surgery, Fatima treated two women suffering from what she called "collateral damage" from the war outside.
The first suffered a miscarriage due to the trauma of losing a close relative to the violence. The other was infertile and disappointed to find that Baghdad's in-vitro fertilisation equipment has been looted. "Now only the rich can afford such treatment, by flying to Jordan," sighed Fatima, whose name has been changed to protect her and her patients.
Of course, all Iraqis male or female are in some way or another touched by the violence raging in the country. Nevetheless, many argue that women's rights have particularly suffered amid the radicalisation of society. Layla al-Alkhafaji, a 49-year-old member of parliament, was elected on the ticket of the United Iraqi Alliance, the main Shiite bloc.
She has herself adopted Islamic dress - a black abbaya - when she goes out and, in common with many other Iraqi women, is very careful not to draw any attention to herself.
"Women in Iraq used to drive cars. Myself, I don't take this risk. It would bring people's attention. Women try everything to avoid attention, " she told AFP, lamenting in particular the damage to female education. According to the United Nations, three-quarters of Iraqi women are illiterate, compared to only 44 percent of men.
Alongside the harassment suffered by women from extremists on all sides, the war condemns dozens of women every day to a life of widowhood, often lonely and rejected by surviving relatives.
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