Moving Towards Inclusion

A Mobility International USA Publication sponsored by USAID

You are here: Home → Online Store & Free Resources → Free Resources → Moving Towards Inclusion → A Disabled Iraqi Woman Finds a Brighter Future: Mercy Corps

A Disabled Iraqi Woman Finds a Brighter Future: Mercy Corps

By Cassandra Nelson, Mercy Corps

MDG #3: Promote gender equality and empower women

An Iraqi woman takes notes during a workshop
“From birth till now I have worked. I have washed my clothes, kept the house, and gone from here to there,” states Makasib Shamal. Makasib was born into a poor family in Al-Kut, Iraq. Her father was blind and her mother chronically ill. At the age of seven months, Makasib had a serious illness, similar to polio. Her family did not have money to send her abroad for the required treatment. By age one, Makasib was left paralyzed from the waist down.

There were few social services for people with disabilities in Iraq, and little compassion. “My family could not afford a wheelchair. I had to crawl, pulling myself with my hands across the floor, to get around,” says Makasib.

She finally received a wheelchair from the government when she was seven, but it broke beyond repair two years later. For the next four years, her mother carried her to school and left her on a bench where she sat all day. Still, she managed to excel in school and was in the top 2% of her class. Finally, the school recognized her achievements and repaired an old wheelchair for her to use.

At the age of 15 her family hit rock bottom. Her father died and her mother was too sick to work. There was no money, not even for food. Makasib was forced to stop school to work as a tailor and help support the family.

For the next decade Makasib only worked. And then the final blow was dealt. Makasib was married-off in an arranged marriage, and became the man’s second wife. “There was no love between us,” recalls Makasib. “He gave a proposal to my family and they forced me to marry him. I had no choice.”

A bad situation quickly turned unbearable: The five sons of the first wife took to regularly beating Makasib. Finally, after two-and-a half years of marriage, she divorced. “The only good thing that came of it all was my son, Mohammed,” she says.

Free from her marriage, she moved home, returned to her tailoring and made a simple but decent life for her son and mother. “I thought that would be the end of my story. That I would spend the rest of my life sewing and alone,” says Makasib. “But then I received a second gift, my son being the first.”

With the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, things began to change in Al-Kut, especially for Makasib and other people with disabilities. With funding from USAID’s Community Action Program, Mercy Corps assisted the community in starting the Al-Kut Society for the Welfare of the Disabled. The initiative came from a group of disabled men and women who all felt neglected by the previous regime. The center is actively registering disabled people, advocating for rights for people with disabilities, and creating a forum for discussing of the needs and issues affecting them.

Makasib was one of the first to register with the Society, and immediately joined the effort as a volunteer. Now, every morning she goes to the center to assist in registering the thousands of new members. She says. “Now I have a place to go and help other people who face the same problems as me. I have a greater sense of purpose in my life. Best of all, I know I am not alone anymore.”