WOMEN FIGHT FOR A PLACE IN IRAQ'S GOVERNING COUNCIL
By Nadra Saouli

August 8, 2003 – (Middle East Times) Rajiha Kurzai, a female obstetrician part educated in Britain, is fighting to be recognised as a bona fide member of Iraq's fledgling Governing Council, as are the two other women in the overwhelmingly male executive body.

"The task was not easy but our determination was unwavering. We insisted on having the right to speak, but above all to be heard," Kurzai said.

Kurzai, who has worn a veil since her Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca last year, said that some of her 22 male colleagues on the US-appointed council could not initially look her in the eye and even tried to ignore her presence altogether.

But "the climate has improved over meetings and I think we are today well accepted", she said. "Most council members are moderates."

Tradition, however, rules, and the men do not welcome women by shaking hands, instead giving a simple nod of the head.

The Iranian-backed Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), which has one seat on the council in Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, concedes that women have an "important role in the executive body".

"Women are well accepted and take part fully in the (council's) work," a senior SAIRI official said.

"A woman figured among the members of the first delegation sent to the United Nations by the council," the official said, referring to Akila al-Hashemi, who accompanied Adnan Pachachi and Ahmed Chalabi to New York in July.

Hashemi, a Shiite member of the committee advising the interim foreign ministry under the US-led coalition, holds a doctorate in French literature and advised on international relations under the former regime.

She doesn't wear a veil but according to Kurzai "that does not pose a problem".

The third female council member, Shangul Shapuk, a 35-year-old engineer and grass roots activist from the northern city of Mosul, wears an Islamic scarf.
"We have very qualified women in Iraq who held top posts in different ministries," the SAIRI official said, adding that certain ministries would indeed go to women.

Kurzai, a mother of seven whose youngest child is 15, was encouraged to enter politics by her surgeon husband.

"I was head of the maternity unit in Diwaniyah for 10 years. Used to posts of responsibility, I threw myself into battle," she said.

The first woman to graduate in medicine from Diwaniyah, 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Bagdhad, in 1968, Kurzai spent six years in London specialising in obstetrics. She worked at various hospitals in London to pay her way.

Two of her daughters, born in England, have British nationality, she said.

A member of a well-known Arab tribe who played a lead role in the Iraqi revolt against British coloniser in the 1920s, Kurzai is keenly sought after when she visits her province at the weekend.

"Last Friday, university teachers from my province came to complain that they have been named in the framework of the de-Baathification campaign.

"They explained that if they had rejoined the Baath party, it was only to obtain a post and they called for an inquiry that will clear the innocent and punish the guilty."

Kurzai notes with pleasure that the council has approved her proposal to create regional commissions to resolve this problem.

From: http://www.metimes.com/2K3/issue2003-32/women/women_fight_for.htm