Despite the widespread NGOs for women’s and children’s rights, more than 15 female babies were abandoned in the past two years, according to the Civil Development Organization.
The director of the neonatal care unit of Kirkuk Hospital, Hussein Omed told Kirkuk Now “We are finding female babies abandoned every now and then and most of the cases are from the districts and sub-districts of Kirkuk.”
“There are not definite numbers of the abandoned baby girls, but so far we have recorded 10 cases in which the babies were found in front of the hospitals, on the streets and garbage yards. Hawija Hospital recorded the highest number of the cases and is followed by Kirkuk Hospital, the Kirkuk Pediatric Hospital and Azadi Hospital,” Omed added.
In a survey conducted by Qasim Muhammad, a family and community physician about the preference of the genders of newborns, the survey showed that majority of families in Kirkuk prefer male babies.
Family doctor Ma’an Baqir told Kirkuk Now “The abandoning of the female babies is totally intentional and most of the cases are due to old-fashioned beliefs that to date are seen amongst our society; to this date, women are considered to be inferior to men, especially in the rural areas of Kirkuk.”
Wasiq Aziz al-Jburi, the head of one of the tribes in Kirkuk told Kirkuk Now “Our women are the redline, their affairs should not be trespassed. We do not let the organizations and even the schools to interfere with that subject. We have been seeing many foreign attempts after the year 2003 to ruin the education and honour of our daughters.”
Sociologist Salma Abdulaziz told Kirkuk Now “Violation of women’s rights and prejudice against women are still practiced in some of the rural areas of Kirkuk; they are deprived from all their rights and are been ignored amongst the society. They are the subjects of forced marriages.”
All these are apart from the pain and misery they face to give birth to male babies, especially the first baby. If not, they will face divorces or they will be subjected to polygamy, she added.
Salwa Sa’adun, an obstetrician and gynecologist addressed that better understanding, developments and technology in the medical fields have made it easier to help individuals somehow be capable to choose the gender of their babies but it is hypothetical and not accurate.
She also added that genetic sciences have proven that the male sperm is responsible for determining the gender of the baby and asks when men are responsible for determining the sex of the babies, then why do they put the blame on their wives?
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