Sherizaan Minwalla, JD MA
Bio:
Sherizaan Minwalla is a human rights lawyer with over a decade of experience in Iraq, particularly focused on gender-based violence and the rule of law. She has represented immigrant survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in the US, as well as Iraqi women at risk of honor-based violence. She taught at the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the American University’s Washington College of Law before returning to Iraq to work on governance and genocide recovery. Her recent scholarship has focused on ethical reporting on survivors of sexual violence in conflict and legal protections for survivors of gender-based violence.
There is plenty of warranted criticism of the New York Times investigation into sexual violence on October 7, but for all the exposé’s ethical shortcomings, its greatest failure was its lack of consideration for the safety, trauma, and dignified treatment of the victims.
Survivors of brutal violence by Islamic State militants played a central role in advocating for reparations from the Iraqi government that failed to protect them, and though they question its ability to implement a reparations program, they have little choice but to hope.
If women have historically been silenced and ignored about experiences of conflict-related sexual violence, the inverse is now true: survivors are being pressured to share their stories, emphasizing heinous details of sexual abuse and little else.
