NEW PROJECT GIVES HOPE TO SINGLE MOTHERS

November 11, 2003 - (IRIN) A circle of women sit on red-carpeted cushions on the floor at the Women for Women (WFW) office in Baghdad, telling their stories to each other as they make friends. Most of them wear the traditional full-length black aba'a, or coat, and their heads are covered, even though there are no men in the room.

They all share a problem: they are taking care of themselves and their children after being widowed, divorced or orphaned. But they are being given a helping hand by the WFW project, which aims to give each of them a skill, such as a handicraft, then teach them how to market their work and how to handle the money they make.

"These women know what they need, they just don’t know how to get there," the WFW programme manager, Manal Umar, told IRIN in Baghdad. "We’ll teach them that," she added.

The WFW project is primarily funded by donations from women abroad, who give US $15 per month and exchange letters about their experiences. The $15 "salary" was enough for an individual to live on in Iraq, Manal found after researching the local economy. Virtually every Iraqi citizen gets a food ration every month under the former UN Oil-for-Food programme, which is being taken over by the Iraqi trade ministry on 21 November.

After WFW opened its doors this summer, nearly 40 women from different walks of life showed up, each wanting to form her own women’s group. "The women knew that they wanted to address their rights, or education or health, but none really knew how to get members, raise money or explain what they would do," Manal said.

She has encouraged the women to create a "coordinating council", which is being trained on ways of writing proposals and raising funds.

In Iraq, women are usually seen but not heard, most wearing the aba'a or long skirts and headscarves. They hardly ever go out unescorted, so it is hard for any woman who has no father, husband, brother or son to do anything in public life.

In such an environment, WFW’s message is somewhat radical. The group teaches women not only how to take care of themselves economically but also to stand up for their rights in society. Under former President Saddam Hussein, organised groups were forbidden to meet, let alone discuss their rights. Therefore, to conservative Muslims in Iraq, the idea of a women’s group is completely new.

"When we give her training, she will not need any support from anyone. She will be strong," Intisar Qadum, a WFW worker, told IRIN. "She will be able to work and be responsible for the family."

The project specialises in helping poor women in post-conflict environments and teaching them self-sufficiency, according to Manal.

In Iraq, the group is also opening a "transitional protective service centre" for victims of rape and abuse. Women will be accommodated in dormitory-style housing with other family members they choose to bring with them, whether they be children or elderly parents. "Our main philosophy is [the transition] from victim, to survivor, to active citizen," Manal said.

In a training class, women shrug off rumoured heightened security threats to women in the streets of Baghdad. Many residents are muttering that it is all the uncertainty in the capital that makes it unsafe for women to walk the streets at night.

But according to one women in the group, who gave her name only as Aniya, life had been so bad under Saddam, that it couldn't be any worse now, no matter how bad the security was. "My brother was executed by the former regime in 1991. When I tried to become a teacher, they refused me because of what my brother had done," Aniya told IRIN. "Saddam Hussein destroyed my life," she said.

We are very happy to come here, because this is new for us. We left our family, our house, just to come to this meeting," Ruqayya, an 18-year-old who had lost her parents, told IRIN. "We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but we want to join together and learn something new," she said.

"There’s an Arabic expression that says destroying things is easy, rebuilding them is hard," Fattan al-Ramahi, another WFW worker, said. She added that she hoped the Americans would remember that saying when they thought about Iraq and the women meeting at her office.