WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY:
IRAQ

• Initiatives to Address Women’s Active Participation in Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Iraq •

UNIFEM WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE WEB PORTAL: IRAQ

"Iraqi women [...] have been adamant about the importance of their political participation in the reconstruction of Iraq. Regardless of their socioeconomic class, ethnic background, or religious or secular tendencies, all Iraqi women I met exhibited strong opinions on what is going on in todayís Iraq and the need to incorporate them in the political process. Isma, a 40-year-old, woman who wears the traditional headscarf expressed her views on women to me by insisting that 'I want Iraqi women to be part of every process of rebuilding the country, in the army, in sport, in every single sector. Women need to have 50% representation in the country. I wish this could happen. We deserve that and we have the credibility to do that as well.'"

Zainab Salbi, Women for Women International, 25 June 2003

"Kurdish women are generally well educated. Many have a great deal to contribute to the decision-making process. There are also many resourceful leaders among their ranks who deserve to be recognised as such. The Iraqi opposition groups do not recognise this truism. They ignore the voice of Iraqi women who defend gender equality and who work towards a true civil society founded upon justice and equality. If there is to be any hope of securing for Iraq in the post-Saddam era, a democratic federal system based on pluralism, justice and gender equality, women must be full participants in the process, not mere spectators. We are therefore determined to make women’s voices heard: we demand that women be granted their rightful place in the future governmental structure of Iraq."

Kurdish Women Action Against Honour Killing, March 2003

In Saddam’s Iraq, women are especially vulnerable pressure points - victims who can be used to influence other victims. They are harassed, abused, raped, tortured and gassed both for their resistance to the regime and as a means to control their families. For reasons like this, other Iraqi women and I have been organizing to get our voices heard in the international arena. Last December we met with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain to brief him on the Ba'th regime's systematic abuse of women in Iraq, and how our families and communities have been persecuted by Saddam's regime.

Ms. Al Souhail, an Iraqi Shi'a, is the advocacy director at the International Alliance for Justice