WUNRN
Iraq
- Minister of State for Women's Rights Ibtihal al-Zaidi - Interview
IRAQ
- CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN'S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
Gulf Times -
06 March, 2012 - It will take decades before
Ibtihal al-Zaidi said authorities had earmarked at least 30% of new jobs this
year for women, and insisted that women in
She also defended remarks made in recent weeks that men held a superior
position in society to women, but said they had been misinterpreted. “We need a
long period of time and more elections to reach the level where we have an
iconic female leader,” Zaidi said in her small office in
“We hope that such a woman will take the post of deputy prime minister and,
some years after that, to become prime minister, but I think it will take
decades for that.”
The 47-year-old lamented the fact that she was the only woman in Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki’s 33-member cabinet, despite the fact that
“The reality is that the number of women in the government is disappointing,
and it is not at the level we want it,” she said, adding that her ministry of
state, which has only around 20 employees, was working to draft a law to set a
women’s quota for the cabinet as well.
Zaidi said the government had agreed to allot 30% of all new jobs in every
ministry to women in 2012, with a 50% allocation in the health and education
ministries.
Until the 1980s, Iraqi women were widely considered to have more rights than
their counterparts across the
Decades of unrest - including the 1980-88 war with Iran, the 1991 Gulf War
after Saddam invaded Kuwait, and the brutal bloodshed unleashed by the 2003
US-led invasion - made more than a million widows and female heads of
household.
The years of sanctions that followed the
Overall violence has declined since it peaked in 2006 and 2007, but Iraqi women
remain victims of violence, trafficking, forced marriage at a young age, and
kidnapping for confessional or criminal reasons, non-governmental groups say.
Zaidi, a mother of three, insisted that rights for women in
“Female employees and students are walking in the streets, going shopping,
going out with their families until late at night, and driving at night,” she
said.
“And in addition, they have freedom of expression, there is freedom of the
press, and women can participate in demonstrations.”
Zaidi, an Arabic-language university professor who has been criticised in
recent weeks for apparently asserting that men hold a “superior” position in
society to women, said her remarks were misinterpreted and were a statement
that Arab tradition meant men were typically household heads.
“By superiority, I do not mean that men should exert their authority over women
arbitrarily,” she said. “Women have the right to live freely within their
families, and husbands must respect women and their will.”
“Superiority does not mean a diminution of the value of women, when the
superiority is based on mutual understanding and respect.”
She added: “One of the best things is that women are not required by tradition
to manage the family, because managing the family is something very difficult.
“My duty is to first satisfy God, and then the people and the women of