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02/02/2006:

"Women bear brunt of poverty in post-invasion Iraq"

...A recent study by the United Nations Development Program and International Monetary Fund shows that 20 percent of the population has fallen below the international poverty line of $1 per day per person.

The numbers of families registering for assistance with the labor and social affairs ministry has more than tripled since the war to 171,000 and even that, according to Leila Kazem, a director general at the ministry, is a "drop in the ocean".

"After the war, a new dangerous issue arose in Iraqi society - poverty, which is clear to everyone," she said, blaming unemployment and violence that has been killing off the main breadwinners, something "which is happening every hour of every day".

The families, however, do not receive any special treatment at the ministry. "We don't have a separate category for victims of terrorism, we just talk about needy families," she said.
metimes.com