Iraq's Silenced Majority
By Zainab Al-Suwaij

May 23, 2003 – (NY Times) When I was a schoolgirl in Iraq in the 1980's, April 28 was the day Baath Party officials would round up students and force us to march in rallies celebrating Saddam Hussein's birthday. This year on that date I celebrated at a very different kind of gathering: the United States-organized conference in Baghdad to determine a new government for the liberated Iraq.

I had not been back to the capital since I fled in 1991, after the failed uprising against Saddam Hussein at the end of the Persian Gulf war. Now I would be joining some 300 delegates at the former dictator's convention center. After flying into the Baghdad airport on a military transport plane, we traveled under the cover of night to the conference hall.

At the meeting, delegates represented the diversity of Iraqi society: Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites, Assyrians, Turkmens and Chaldeans; clerics, tribal sheiks, businessmen,
professors, doctors, refugees and returning exiles. Over a 10-hour period, each of us was allowed to address the gathering; we could say whatever we wanted.

Delegates debated, campaigned for support and even changed their own minds. At first, the consensus seemed to be that Iraq needed an interim government with nationwide authority. But then an eloquent Kurd argued that it would be better to proceed slowly. I watched delegates nod their heads in approval, enjoying the freedom to develop their own opinions through an open exchange of ideas.

The atmosphere was electric. People were embracing, crying and talking with abandon. After three decades of repression, the conference was a big therapy session for the Iraqi family. Except that one group was largely missing from the family. In a country where women are the majority (especially after two decades of devastating wars), I was one of only five invited to the conference.

My speech was only a few minutes long. I decided to remind the conference that women need to play a central role in Iraq's future, that we should bring all Iraqis together to help heal the deep social divisions inflicted by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Speaking before a sea of men, including sheiks and clerics, I was worried about the reaction, especially since I was participating in the meeting not as a representative of a domestic political group but as an independent delegate. (I belong to no Iraqi faction, and although I wear a head scarf, or hijab, I believe in the separation of religion and state.)

To my surprise, there was applause after I finished and dozens of men came to congratulate me as I walked back to my seat. These delegates seemed painfully aware of how Iraqi society had stagnated under Saddam Hussein and eagerly wanted to catch up to the rest of the world.

Mutual trust - among various religious groups, ethnic factions and even within families - will be vital to the new Iraq. Under the Baathists, we were all turned against each other. My classmates and I were encouraged to inform on our parents' political views. During the Iran-Iraq war, we watched Saddam Hussein on television rewarding fathers for turning in sons who deserted the army.

We must heal these wounds of division and mistrust within Iraqi families and between various groups. This means that wherever the Baath Party worked to destroy the institutions of civil society, all Iraqis, including women, should be given a role in rebuilding and healing - from government ministries to the oil industry to
education to the legal system.

America is struggling to create order amid the power vacuum in Iraq. Building democracy is a long-term process, but enabling women to lead and participate in all aspects of Iraqi society can begin immediately. Imagine an Iraq where women are represented throughout the public and private sectors, and then imagine the example this will set for the entire region.

Helping to build a free government out of the rubble of tyranny is thrilling. You feel and see history being created all around you. But this history will endure only if all Iraqis are part of it.

Zainab Al-Suwaij is executive director of the American Islamic Congress.

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