Batton, Iraq "All I can do now is cry as I don't have any support"

Batton's story

"All I can do now is cry as I don't have any support. My name is Batton from the town of Al-Sadr in the northeast of Baghdad. My husband attended a clandestine Shi'ah pilgrimage to visit a holy site in 1998 and he was imprisoned for eight months before being executed. My husband's remains were found at Al-Mahawil, one of the many mass graves discovered recently outside Baghdad.

"I have heard so many stories of other women in the same position as me. We heard that gunmen would raid houses during Saddam's time to take men away who were considered to be against the regime. Our husbands were tortured and the only way to get them back was to pay huge ransoms. But I didn't even have the opportunity to do this. Now I am left to fend for myself and my family.

"There was virtually no help for women like me during Saddam's time, but now NGOs are beginning to set up support services to help us."

Estimates of the number of widows in Iraq vary. A recent United Nations Development Programme-commissioned study on widows in Baghdad found that in one small district of Al-Sadr city, known as Hayy Ur, almost every house containing at least two families had a widow. Others say it could be as high as 250,000. Conditions for women in general, and widows and female-headed households in particular, have deteriorated since the recent conflict, according to a 17-page Human Rights Watch report.