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Iraqi Women Vie for Votes and Taste of Power
Michael Kamber for The
New York Times
January 28, 2009
A blog looking at daily life inside
Early
Voting in Iraq Is Mostly Smooth (January 29, 2009)
Michael
Kamber for The New York Times
“You
are going to vote for me, right?” she quizzed passers-by on a stroll recently
through her neighborhood of
In
Of
the estimated 14,400 candidates, close to 4,000 are women. Some female
candidates have had their posters splattered with mud, defaced with beards or
torn up, but most have been spared the violence that has claimed the lives of
two male candidates and a coalition leader since the start of the year. But on
Wednesday, a woman working for the Iraqi Islamic Party was killed when gunmen
burst into her house in
For
many of the female candidates, the elections offer a chance to inject some much
needed fresh air into councils that are plagued by deep corruption and
dominated by men and big political parties that are often ultraconservative.
But
even if they win, they face numerous hurdles, particularly the entrenched
attitudes of most Iraqi men, who view women as either sex objects or child
bearers who have no place in the rough-and-tumble arena of politics. “This is
the mentality,” said Safia Taleb al-Suhail, a member of Parliament and the
daughter of a prominent Shiite tribal leader assassinated by Saddam
Hussein’s henchmen in
She
is leading a group of female Parliament members who are lobbying to make sure
that the same constitutional provision that mandates that 25 percent of all
seats in Parliament go to women is applied to provincial councils as well.
Currently, it is not.
While
Iraq
in the 1950s was the first Arab country to name a female minister and adopt a
progressive family law, the leadership aspirations of women were mostly quashed
under Mr. Hussein’s macho government. The situation became further complicated
for women after 2003, with the ascendance of religious parties.
Ms.
Suhail and others were instrumental in lobbying
When
it was published in October, the law regulating the provincial elections
omitted the quota for women; it remains unclear whether the omission was
deliberate or just an oversight. The electoral commission has ruled that the
law as written is acceptable, saying that women are ensured of adequate
representation by the requirement that a woman be chosen after every three men
in any winning slate.
But
Ms. Suhail said that many of the candidate slates did not have enough women in
them to meet that requirement, while other slates were made up of fewer than
four candidates, all of whom are male.
Mahdiya
Abed-Hassan al-Lami, a women’s rights advocate, and candidate in Baghdad
running on the slate of a former prime minister, Ibrahim
Jaafari, said that while she supported the quota system, it has been
manipulated by the major political parties, both secular and religious, to
marginalize women. Most of the women chosen for the large candidate slates are
there for their family and tribal connections and loyalty to the sect or party,
she said, rather than for their qualifications.
“If
women are simply followers they cannot fulfill their roles properly,” said Ms.
Lami, who is a teacher and a practicing Shiite. Her campaign has focused on
reaching out to her network of women, particularly in some of the most
destitute slums of
Ms.
Kibash, another female candidate who is running on Mr. Jaafari’s list, is
currently a member of the
Despite
the recent gains in security, some women continue to face threats, while others
say the whole thing is a charade and not worth the effort.
Liza
Hido sat on a municipal council but was forced to quit in 2006 after receiving
threatening e-mail and text
messages on her cellphone.
She
is running again this year but, still concerned for her safety, she is keeping
her campaigning discreet, putting up no posters and making no public
appearances. Instead, she restricts herself to private gatherings.
Her
friend Bushra al-Obeidi, a law professor at
“I
assure you,” she said, “they are against women. They are lying to us.”
Ms.
Suhail, the lawmaker, admitted that Iraqi women had failed so far to break into
the top levels of the political power structure but said that this was no
reason to give up.
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