WUNRN
IRAQ - ZEKRA ALWACH BECOMES BAGHDAD’S FIRST FEMALE MAYOR
Zekra
Alwach – Baghdad’s First Female Mayor
AFP,
Baghdad –21 February 2015
A
woman has been named as mayor of Baghdad for the first time, a government
spokesman said Saturday, amid widespread corruption and rampant violence.
Zekra
Alwach, a civil engineer and director general of the ministry of higher
education, becomes the first female to be given such a post in the whole
country, where international rights groups have condemned women's rights
abuses.
As
mayor -- the most important administrative position in the capital -- Alwach
will deal directly with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and holds has the
prerogatives of a cabinet minister.
She
will begin work Sunday, according to a municipal source.
"Abadi
sacked the (former) mayor Naim Aboub and named Dr. Zekra Alwach to replace
him," government spokesman Rafed Juburi said.
Aboub's
removal was not designed as a punishment, although he was regularly accused on
social media and by Baghdad residents as incompetent, the spokesman added.
He
made headlines in March 2014 when he described his city, beset by brutal
sectarian violence and rife with corruption, as "more beautiful than New
York and Dubai".
"Aboub
is a clown. Abadi should have sacked him from the start," said Yasser
Saffar, a Baghdad baker. "All his statements were ridiculous."
Alwach's
appointment is a breakthrough for gender equality in Iraq, where rights groups
say discrimination and violence against women is widespread.
According
to a U.N. report last year, at least a quarter of Iraqi women aged over 12 are
illiterate and just 14 percent enter the world of work.
Baghdad
is currently plagued by car bombings and sectarian killings, and militants from
the Islamic State group have seized much of Anbar province to the west,
menacing the capital.