Women bear brunt of poverty in Iraq

"We didn't used to need anyone. He worked and we could make do, but now it's obvious that we are in need," said the widow, swathed in black and looking much older than her 46 years.

But one year after she applied for government assistance, she has heard nothing and her eldest son, Ziyad, has dropped out of high school to support the family with occasional work.

Poverty has exploded across Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion.

A recent study by the United Nations Development Programme and International Monetary Fund shows that 20 percent of the population has fallen below the international poverty line of one dollar 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 which has been killing off the main bread-winners, something "which is happening every hour of every day".