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“Baghdad is the type of city where shoppers going to the only high-end mall are patted down for explosives, and men there are more likely to be carrying AK-47s than credit cards,” said Erin Evers, Iraq researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Banks in Baghdad barely function. Cash is king.”

Evers has been working in Baghdad for a year and a half. The security situation began to crumble after US troops pulled out. Since last April, it has been especially tense. The number of suicide bombings drastically escalated, violence between the ruling Shia and minority Sunnis worsened, and al Qaeda’s foothold in Iraq grew stronger.

While Evers says she doesn’t worry “overly much” about her safety, she is alert to danger – especially in traffic jams, which happen daily thanks to Baghdad’s numerous checkpoints. When she’s wedged, immobile, between other cars, it can mean there’s little chance to  escape in an emergency.

“Your eyes wander to the massive truck parked on the side of the street and you think, ‘What’s in that truck?’” she said.

Visiting officials, despite the huge amount of security surrounding them, can also be risky. Evers may trust the official, but one never knows when a suicide bomber, or someone else with a dangerous agenda, may strike.

Despite the security situation, Evers feels comfortable walking the streets of Baghdad, even though she’s one of the few foreign women out there.  

“In terms of sexual harassment, I feel comfortable being a woman on the street,” she said. “People keep to themselves.”

Evers, who is from the United States, lived in Egypt for seven years, where she learned Arabic, worked with local human rights organizations and an organization assisting Iraqi refugees before taking a job as Human Rights Watch’s Iraq researcher.

“What really appeals to me about working here [Iraq] is that, unlike in many other countries, there is no pretense that things are normal or OK,” she said. “Iraq really wears its problems on its sleeves.”

There are many modes of behavior in Iraq that felt similar to Egypt. Hospitality is highly regarded in both countries, and she knows that when she’s invited into a family’s home – even if it’s to interview them – she will likely be served sweets and drinks on a tray. She avoids shaking men’s hands, as a female from outside their family. She also knows that, as heads of their families, men will traditionally speak before women will.

Iraq is becoming a more conservative country, Evers said. In the 70s and 80s, Iraqi women had many freedoms – women and girls went to school and even college, and women had high literacy rates in comparison with their Middle Eastern neighbor countries. Today, Iraqi women complain that they’ve been pushed to the background  when it comes to work or politics, but even when it comes to how they conduct themselves in public and where they are permitted to go.

Because of this, Evers met few Iraqi women before she began researching her new report on the treatment of women in prison.

More than 1,000 women are held in Iraq’s jails and other detention facilities, and many of them allege they have been tortured, raped, or otherwise abused.

But she hopes that allowing the women to tell their stories will help them.

“Giving people the opportunity to talk is something,” Evers said. “I hope it can be some kind of justice.”

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