WUNRN
Political
parties pay only lip-service to women’s demands for greater political clout.
By Barham Omar in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 245, 1-Feb-08)
Despite
a reputation for courage on the battlefield, Kurdish women are unable to
penetrate the upper echelons of power in the region’s top parties and
government, according to politicians and women’s activists.
Iraqi Kurdistan is widely considered the most liberal part of the country for
women. Kurdish women have served with the Peshmerga guerrillas for decades, and
one of the six Kurdish ministers in the Iraqi national government is female.
However, only one of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s 44 ministers is a
woman, and neither of the two powerful parties has a female in its ruling
politburo.
Although women are trying to break the glass ceiling, they say they are blocked
by Iraqi Kurdistan’s male-dominated political world.
The two dominant parties - the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, and the
Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP - have failed to appoint women to high-level
positions either within their parties or in government, according to critics.
Most women in the KDP and PUK – largely secular parties that have fought for
women to have equal constitutional rights - hold only low-ranking positions, at
best in local party branch offices.
“As a socialist, democratic party, we have thought about the fact that we need
to promote women politicians within our party,” said Emad Ahmed, a member of
the PUK’s 15-member politburo. “The situation is upsetting.”
Shireen Amedi, the only female member of the KDP’s committee, one level lower
than the politburo, said women are active in the party but find their
fellow-members are reluctant to support them if they are nominated to a leading
post. In turn, female party activists are unwilling to push for more power.
The KDP last held a party election in 1993, while the PUK has not held one
since 2000.
Women say tradition still holds back their political careers.
Politics is still considered the domain of men in northern Iraq, said Pakhashan
Zangana, a female member of the Kurdistan Communist Party’s politburo.
Mihabad Qaradakhi, formerly equality affairs advisor for Iraqi Kurdistan’s
prime minister Nechirvan Barzani, agrees.
“Women being involved in politics in Kurdistan is considered shameful for her
family, because the patriarchal mentality is dominant,” she said.
She argued that the lack of women in high-ranking position has adversely
affected women throughout the region.
When the semi-autonomous region held its first election in 1992, the law made
it a condition for political factions to have seven per cent of their candidate
lists made up of women. For Iraq’s parliamentary election in 2005, a higher
quota of 25 per cent was stipulated.
Kurdish women are now lobbying for more power within the parties.
Four months ago, 30 female members of the PUK submitted a proposal to the
Kurdistan parliament that would force political parties to allocate 25 per cent
of their leadership seats to women.
The assembly has yet to respond to their demands.
“If it was approved, this quota would be a positive step towards empowering
women,” said Zangana.
The PUK women’s association declined IWPR’s repeated requests for an interview.
A handful of women in the region who enjoy support from their husbands and
families have been able to gain some power. Hero Ibrahim, the wife of Iraqi
president Jalal Talabani and a longtime member of the PUK, heads a media empire
and a children’s organisation.
However, Najeeba Mahmood, an independent politician and head of women’s affairs
in the non-government Kurdistan Development Organisation in Sulaimaniyah, said
no woman can reach a high-ranking position purely on her own merits.
”Unfortunately, the Kurdish parties have a tribal mindset,” she said. “A woman
only becomes a leader if she comes from a prominent tribe or a political
family.”
Qaradakhi held a similar view, saying, “It is impossible for a woman to occupy
a high-ranking position unless there are many men supporting her.”
Vian Dzayi, a PUK member of the Kurdistan parliament, admits that she was
granted her seat in 2005 as a reward for her family’s long history of
involvement with the party. She was an English teacher before entering the
assembly.
“It is true that I have never been actively involved [in the PUK] but my family
and I have served the party. That is why I was appointed to this post,” she
said
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