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Iraqi Kurdistan: Kurdish Women Hit Class
Ceiling
2.2.2008
By Barham Omar in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region
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Political parties pay only lip-service to women’s
demands for greater political clout.
February 2, 2008
Despite a reputation for courage on the battlefield,
Kurdish women are unable to penetrate the upper
echelons of power in the region’s top parties and
government, according to politicians and women’s
activists.
Iraqi Kurdistan is widely considered the most
liberal part of the country for women. Kurdish women
have served with the Peshmerga guerrillas for
decades, and one of the six Kurdish ministers in the
Iraqi national government is female.
However, only one of the Kurdistan Regional
Government’s 44 ministers is a woman, and neither of
the two powerful parties has a female in its ruling
politburo.
Although women are trying to break the glass
ceiling, they say they are blocked by Iraqi
Kurdistan’s male-dominated political world.
The two dominant parties - the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, PUK, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party,
KDP - have failed to appoint women to high-level
positions either within their parties or in
government, according to critics.
Most women in the KDP and PUK – largely secular
parties that have fought for women to have equal
constitutional rights - hold only low-ranking
positions,www.ekurd.net
at best in local party
branch offices.
“As a socialist, democratic party, we have thought
about the fact that we need to promote women
politicians within our party,” said Emad Ahmed, a
member of the PUK’s 15-member politburo. “The
situation is upsetting.”
Shireen Amedi, the only female member of the KDP’s
committee, one level lower than the politburo, said
women are active in the party but find their
fellow-members are reluctant to support them if they
are nominated to a leading post. In turn, female
party activists are unwilling to push for more
power.
The KDP last held a party election in 1993, while
the PUK has not held one since 2000.
Women say tradition still holds back their political
careers.
Politics is still considered the domain of men in
northern Iraq, said Pakhashan Zangana, a female
member of the Kurdistan Communist Party’s politburo.
Mihabad Qaradakhi, formerly equality affairs advisor
for Iraqi Kurdistan’s prime minister Nechirvan
Barzani, agrees.
“Women being involved in politics in Kurdistan is
considered shameful for her family, because the
patriarchal mentality is dominant,” she said.
She argued that the lack of women in high-ranking
position has adversely affected women throughout the
region.
When the semi-autonomous region held its first
election in 1992,www.ekurd.net
the law made it a
condition for political factions to have seven per
cent of their candidate lists made up of women. For
Iraq’s parliamentary election in 2005, a higher
quota of 25 per cent was stipulated.
Kurdish women are now lobbying for more power within
the parties.
Four months ago, 30 female members of the PUK
submitted a proposal to the Kurdistan parliament
that would force political parties to allocate 25
per cent of their leadership seats to women.
The assembly has yet to respond to their demands.
“If it was approved, this quota would be a positive
step towards empowering women,” said Zangana.
The PUK women’s association declined IWPR’s repeated
requests for an interview.
A handful of women in the region who enjoy support
from their husbands and families have been able to
gain some power. Hero Ibrahim, the wife of Iraqi
president Jalal Talabani and a longtime member of
the PUK, heads a media empire and a children’s
organisation.
However, Najeeba Mahmood, an independent politician
and head of women’s affairs in the non-government
Kurdistan Development Organisation in Sulaimaniyah,
said no woman can reach a high-ranking position
purely on her own merits.
”Unfortunately, the Kurdish parties have a tribal
mindset,” she said. “A woman only becomes a leader
if she comes from a prominent tribe or a political
family.”
Qaradakhi held a similar view, saying, “It is
impossible for a woman to occupy a high-ranking
position unless there are many men supporting her.”
Vian Dzayi, a PUK member of the Kurdistan
parliament, admits that she was granted her seat in
2005 as a reward for her family’s long history of
involvement with the party. She was an English
teacher before entering the assembly.
“It is true that I have never been actively involved
[in the PUK] but my family and I have served the
party. That is why I was appointed to this post,”
she said.
Barham Omar is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.
iwpr net
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