WUNRN
Iraq - Female Nurses Struggle for Equality,
Respect
Nurses from a mobile team working for the
Ministry of Health administer polio vaccinations to children under the age of
five in a poor neighborhood of Baghdad, Oct. 4, 2011. (photo by SABAH
ARAR/AFP/Getty Images)
Author: Wassim BassemPosted - January 8,
2015
Iraqi society tends to have harsh disapproval
of female nurses and devaluation of their work.
Male nurse Hassan Hatem, from Hilla in the
center of Babil province, is looking for a woman to marry. It is only natural
that he consider his colleagues at Hilla General Teaching Hospital, but, he
told Al-Monitor in a Jan. 4 interview, “I was not able to marry a colleague
who I used to love because my family refused our marriage.” He added, “I
sought to persuade my father of the marriage but he categorically refused the
idea of letting me marry a female nurse.”
Hatem attributed his father’s refusal to the
fact that society still considers a woman who works as a nurse to be rebelling
against moral values and the social customs that prohibit women from staying
overnight outside the household or to have physical contact with men,
even patients. This conservative social idea
holds that a woman's work place is in
the home, and Iraq's culture of shame classifies
women as "weak" individuals who must be kept isolated. The reluctance
of many Iraqi women to work despite widespread unemployment, especially
among women, is causing a
shortage in Iraqi hospitals and prompting the Iraqi Ministry of Health to
recruit nurses from India.
Nursing was introduced in Iraq in 1933 and
according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health records, there are currently no more
than 40,000 Iraqi nurses, 75% of them
men.
Rahima Hussein, also from Babil, has been
working as a nurse since 1979. She told Al-Monitor that her job is one of the
reasons she never got married. Hussein stressed that many of her colleagues
stopped working due to the narrow societal view of the profession, saying,
“Several became midwives working in houses.”
However, journalist Qasim Mozan, the editor
of the society column in the Iraqi newspaper Al-Sabaah and a frequent
investigator of social issues, told Al-Monitor, “Ever since women started
working in this humanitarian profession, they have been looked down on and
their honor has been questioned. Even their parents were criticized and
described in demeaning terms.”
Mozan added, “The perception of women as
inferior is old. After 2003, when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime fell,
the conservative movement dominated and strengthened the previous popular
skepticism, thus discouraging Iraqis from working in the nursing profession.
This led the Ministry of Health to recruit nurses from Asian countries to fill
the shortage in medical staff.”
Anaam al-Zaidi, who has been working as a
nurse in Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital in Dhi Qar for five
years, is optimistic about the future of female nurses. She told Al-Monitor,
“The perception of inferiority is gradually receding in society,” explaining,
“This is due to the social openness to the world, the media and Iraqis
traveling abroad to receive treatment.”
She added, “Families are encouraged to allow
women to work in the health sector, given the tempting salary. Women receive
around 500,000 Iraqi dinars [$437] upon their employment, and this salary
increases with years of service.” Zaidi pointed out that nearly two decades
ago, it was not common to see even the current number of female nurses in Iraqi
hospitals, but over the last five years, women have been increasingly
willing to work in this sector.
Zaidi’s opinion is in line with that of
journalist Alaa Koliy. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Koliy said, “A lot of
people are starting to understand the role of female nurses and how their work
requires some activities that seem strange in a conservative society, such as
touching men and staying overnight in the hospital.”
Koliy asserted, “The situation is gradually
changing, and there is an improvement in the relationship between society and
the female nurse, given the need for job opportunities and the spread of
education and openness to other cultures.”
For his part, social researcher Sabah Kadhim points out the contradiction between
the rejection of the nursing profession and society’s need for it. He told
Al-Monitor, “The security situation, leading to casualties from war and
terrorist attacks, calls for the qualification of medical and paramedical staff
and for the development of the nursing sector to meet treatment needs.”
In the city of Diwaniya, medical assistant
Alaa Najem told Al-Monitor, “Around 25 Indian nurses work in Iraq for a salary
of about $500 to $600, which is less than the salary received by Iraqi nurses,
which contributed to the improvement of health services in Diwaniya's hospital
and health centers.”
Iraqi nurse Lamia Saleh told Al-Monitor that
working with Indian nurses has increased her competence, stressing, “Nurses
recruited from abroad have a high professionalism and extensive experience.”
For her part, Indian nurse Kerala Mathu said that Iraqi nurses are eager to work,
but lack expertise and need more qualifications.
Despite Iraq's dire need for nurses, social
customs still discourage the Iraqi government from issuing laws promoting the
nursing profession and ensuring fair remuneration for female nurses.