Dr. Entisar Mohammad Ariabi will speak in Montgomery, Alabama on Saturday, March 11, at 3 p.m. at a rally at the state Capitol about daily life in Iraq and the possibility of an impending civil war. The rally is sponsored by the Alabama chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) as part of the International Women’s Day activities.

Ariabi will offer a first-hand look at the situation in Iraq, especially the escalation of violence that’s occurred since the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra. Ariabi arrived in the United States on March 5 with a delegation of Iraqi women who want to tell their stories to the American public and urge U.S. and UN officials to create a peace plan to end the escalating cycle of violence.

Dr. Ariabi is a pharmacist at the Yarmook Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, where she lives with her husband and five children. A member of the Pharmacist Union, she is involved in providing medical and food emergency relief to families in villages and towns devastated by the war. She is especially concerned by the deteriorating health care system in Iraq, including the lack of medicines and medical supplies and destruction of hospitals.

The Iraqi women’s delegation that Dr. Ariabi is part of is promoting a Women’s Call for Peace that’s been signed by 50,000 women around the globe. The call urges a shift in strategy in Iraq, from a military model to a conflict resolution model. It requests the withdrawal of all foreign troops and foreign fighters from Iraq, negotiations to reincorporate disenfranchised Iraqis, full representation of women in the peacemaking process, and a commitment to women's equality in the post-war Iraq.

More information is available at WomenSayNoToWar.Org.