Human Rights Watch issued a report today claiming that insecurity that is plaguing Iraq is forcing women and girls from participating in public life because they have to fear for their safety.

One Human Rights Watch officials said, ” If Iraqi women are to participate in postwar society, their physical security needs to be an urgent priority.”

The group found at least 25 cases where women were abducted or were the victims of sexual violence, but many more cases go unreported. The New York Times reports today that even after some of the women who have been raped or abducted come home they are sometimes murdered by their own families in so-called honor killings.

Doctors report they have seen more rape cases after the war than before.