Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=MAY 14, 2003

TYPE=DATELINE

NUMBER=7-37446

TITLE=WOMEN AND IRAQ'S FUTURE

BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO

TELEPHONE=619-2443

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=CAROL CASTIEL

CONTENT=

DISK: DATELINE THEME [PLAYED IN STUDIO, FADED UNDER DATELINE HOST VOICE

OR PROGRAMMING MATERIAL]

HOST: As political forces in Iraq debate the country's future, one group that is working hard not to be overlooked is women -- who have suffered cultural discrimination and may face even more obstacles brought on by possible fundamentalist interpretations of Islam. As V-O-A's Stephanie Ho reports from Washington, Iraqi women have been debating their role in a changed society that is bound by traditions and stunted by decades of dictatorship.

SH: As Iraq's multitude of religious, ethnic and tribal groups try to work together to rebuild the country, Iraqi women want to ensure that they, too, have a place at the table.

A group called Women Waging Peace recently organized a conference to discuss the role of women in Iraq's future.

Women Waging Peace's senior vice-president, Hattie Babbitt, says women are especially vulnerable in the post-war period.

TAPE CUT #1: BABBITT

"Women are disproportionately affected by the humanitarian needs sets of issues -- the lack of water, the lack of electricity, women's more vulnerability toward violence."

SH: Ms. Babbitt adds that another issue she heard raised often during the sessions was the traditional lack of a role for women in Iraqi politics.

TAPE CUT #2: BABBITT

"One of the quotes (I often heard) was we need to train Iraqi men about inclusive governance. We need to train the Iraqi society about a governance based on equality."

SH: University of Virginia professor Abdulaziz Sachedina says there are cultural and religious obstacles for women to overcome in Iraq. First of all, he warns that Islam could be a force in Iraq's future government and may have a big impact on the status of Iraqi women.

TAPE CUT #3: SACHEDINA

"Religion today will not sit on the margins. It's going to claim a greater role and this is where we need to be alert."

SH: He says a fundamentalist religious interpretation in politics would be devastating for efforts to advance women's rights.

TAPE CUT #4: SACHEDINA

"There are even direct references, which, if read literally, would lead to the enslavement of a woman, in the Koran."

SH: Saddam Hussein's toppled regime was headed by the secular Baath Party and dominated by Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority. For decades, the regime suppressed the religious freedom of the country's Shia Muslim population -- which make up 60-percent of the country.

Professor Sachedina says this situation has paved the way for what he describes as a possible Islamic alternative to secularism.

TAPE CUT #5: SACHEDINA

"We have had secularism in the form of Baathist government, for a long time, almost 30 years. We have been having this kind of atrocious ideology impinging upon the rights of the people, rights of the women or minorities, or whatever we can think of."

SH: He adds that this lack of freedom also means that Iraqi Shiite religious leaders were not able to freely discuss the role of women in modern Islam.

TAPE CUT #6: SACHEDINA

"There is a lot of discussion taking place in Cairo, in Tehran, in other capitals, about what is to be done, how a civil society or a civil religion can evolve in the midst of all this problems of what we call democratizing the society. Iraq has not had its share because the religious authorities were equally suppressed in their freedoms by the Saddam government, so, (there was) very little intellectual movement to really address the issues that were important for the rights of women, in family law, in any other dimension of it."

SH: In parts of Iraq that were free from Saddam Hussein's regime, though, women have been able to play greater roles.

One example is Nasreen Mustafa Sideek, the Reconstruction and Development Minister in Iraqi Kurdistan's regional government. She says the Kurdish-controlled region has made great strides in furthering the rights of women.

TAPE CUT #7: SIDEEK

"The status and role of women continues to assume more and more central importance through educating young girls, giving women greater choices and increasing their participation in community at large. There are three women ministers in the regional cabinets. Women are professors and senior administrators. Women comprise more than 60-percent of my

staff, for example."

SH: Iraqi Kurdistan was protected by the northern no-fly zone imposed on Iraq following the 1991 Gulf war and so the region developed autonomously from Saddam's rule. Ms. Sideek says women became more involved in the predominantly Kurdish society because a large number of men had been forcibly taken away by Saddam's regime.

TAPE CUT #8: SIDEEK

"We have almost 200-thousand men missing for 20 years, and disappeared. These, the family of these men need an answer. I would estimate that similar numbers also for the rest of the country, where men has just been taken in the middle of the night and their whereabouts still unknown."

SH: The Kurdish minister says she believes her region can now serve as a model for the rest of the country.

TAPE CUT #9: SIDEEK

"What happened in Iraqi Kurdistan in 12 years should be seen as an example of what could happen in the rest of the country. Now, Iraqi Kurdistan was known to be the most underdeveloped before 1991, because of political policies and destruction, and it's known to be a tribal societies and communities, and underdeveloped. And all of this happened over the last 12 years because they were freed of Saddam and they were supported by the international community."

SH: Ms. Sideek says she believes improving the status of women in all of Iraq is possible, but will take time. For example, she points to the difficulties faced in implementing a law banning honor killings in Iraqi Kurdistan.

TAPE CUT #10: SIDEEK

"It took two years of work, because we worked through the communities. We involved the religious leaders -- they spoke about it in the mosques, churches, the media debate was created. And I think that's one way of moving."

SH: Iraqi delegates from inside and outside of the country discussed the question of the country's post-Saddam political future for the first time at a meeting in mid-April in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya.

Charlotte Ponticelli, the State Department's Senior Coordinator for International Women's Issues, says the gathering resulted in several promising developments for women.

TAPE CUT #11: PONTICELLI

"We are pleased that Iraqi women were included in the Nasiriya meeting, and that the meeting concluded with a statement noting the importance of respect for the rights of women. Much work remains to be done to make that vision a reality."

SH: Iraqi exile Zainab Al-Suwaij, executive-director of the Massachusetts-based American Islamic Congress, was one of only four

women at the meeting, which included more than 100 delegates.

TAPE CUT #12: AL-SUWAIJ

"I was in Iraq for the first time after 12 years. I was invited by the U-S government for the meeting of Iraqi leaders in Nasiriya, and it was mostly men. But we female representatives argued strongly that women have central role to play in building the new Iraq. I believe Iraqi women should be involved at all levels of rebuilding, in the rebuilding process from restoring the oil fields to serving in the government, to starting a business."

SH: She says she believes women from various backgrounds should be involved in the country's new national government.

TAPE CUT #13: AL-SUWAIJ

"I think most of the Iraqi women, from many different ethnicities and many different religions throughout Iraq would like to participate and would like to have a role in a new government in Iraq."

SH: Ms. Al-Suwaij adds, though, that it was clear to her at the Nasiriya meeting that not everyone welcomed female participation.

TAPE CUT #14: AL-SUWAIJ

"I saw or noticed many people -- they're not really in favor of having many women in leadership there."

SH: The head of the World Bank's gender activities in the Middle East, Nadereh Chamlou, agrees with Ms. Al-Suwaij that there should be greater political involvement for women.

TAPE CUT #15: CHAMLOU

"We've been talking quite a bit about what would be a critical mass for women to be at the table, or so. And I think 30-percent, 20-percent, 50-percent is important in terms of creating that critical mass. But I don't think it's enough. Why is not enough? Because if we are talking about a democratic process, the 30-percent could still be overshadowed by the other 70-percent or by the other 80-percent or the 50-percent."

SH: Political participation also involves having input in the policies the government makes -- a goal for groups like Women International, a U-S-based non-profit group that is dedicated to supporting female survivors of armed conflict and social upheaval.

The organization's founder, Zainab Salbi.

TAPE CUT #16: SALBI

"When it comes to policy-making, we've got to make sure that women are incorporated in every single process of this transition -- whether it's constitutional debate, whether it's governmental debate, economic reconstruction, every single thing."

She says another crucial effort involves getting more women involved in the mainstream economic sphere.

TAPE CUT #17: SALBI

"We need to get women into the factories, as well, and we need to go beyond the fact -- and I'm talking not businesswomen, not the elites, not the social-economic elite -- I'm really talking about the rest of the population, which is the majority, who are poor, who are not as educated as some of us here."

SH: Ms. Salbi says she believes there are many talented and capable Iraqi women who could be leaders. She adds that it's just a matter of looking for them.

TAPE CUT #18: SALBI

"What we have to recognize is there haven't been venues which women's leadership voices can come and merge and express themselves and all of that. But they are there. They are here in this room. They are in Baghdad. They are everywhere."

SH: Meanwhile, the next opportunity for female participation in Iraq's national political process comes soon, when delegates meet to select the country's transitional government.

For Dateline, I'm Stephanie Ho in Washington.