[lbo-talk] Gender of Death in Iraq

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Like many conflicts (except in the cases like the atomic bombings and
firebombings of cities), a large majority of victims of violent deaths
in Iraq are "men of military age, defined as 15-44 years of age," and
probably so are a majority of killers (coalition forces, militias,
suicide bombers, etc.).  Men do the killing and dying in war.

<blockquote>Most deaths (n=485; 77%) were in males, and this was true
for both periods, but more pronounced in the pre-invasion period (57
of 82 deaths pre-invasion vs 428 of 547 deaths postinvasion). The
male-to-female ratio of post-invasion deaths was 3·4 for all deaths,
and 9·8 for violent deaths (all deaths: 144 female, 485 male; violent
death: 28 female, 274 male). In general, deaths by age group followed
the expected J-shaped demographic curve; however, by contrast, most
deaths in males were in the middle age groups (figure 1).

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Deaths in men of military age, defined as 15–44 years of age, were
disproportionately high and accounted for 59% (52–65) of post-invasion
violent deaths, despite this subgroup accounting for only 24·4% of the
Iraqi population.16  (Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy,
Les Roberts, "Mortality after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: a
Cross-Sectional Cluster Sample Survey," The Lancet, 11 October 2006,
p. 4-5,
<http://www.thelancet.com/webfiles/images/journals/lancet/s0140673606694919.pdf>)</blockquote>

<blockquote>According to information provided by the Ministry of
Health, the number of civilians violently killed in the country was
3,345 in September (including 195 women and 54 children) and 3,709 in
October (including 156 women and 56 children).3 The number of wounded
reached 3,481 in September, including 251 women and 125 children), and
3,944 in October (including 276 women and 112 children). As a way of
comparison, the total figure of civilians killed in Iraq was 3,590 in
July and 3,009 in August 2006. In Baghdad the total number of
civilians violently killed in September and October was 4,984 (2,262
in September and 2,722 in October: among those the number of
unidentified bodies was 1,471 in September and 1,782 in October).  (UN
Assistance Mission for Iraq, "Human Rights Report: 1 September– 31
October 2006," p. 4,
<http://www.uniraq.org/documents/HR%20Report%20Sep%20Oct%202006%20EN.pdf>)</blockquote>
-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>