Iraqi Women's Future: All Arab Women Are Watching

Iraq’s Struggle Brings Hope -- and Fear – to Women in the Arab World
By Frida Ghitis

When the sound of explosions rattles the windows in Baghdad, worries about the political shockwaves reach across the oceans. What happens in Iraq keeps people awake in America and across the desert in other Arab countries. Among those most interested in seeing a happy ending for this latest harrowing tale from Mesopotamia are activists for women’s right in the Arab world.

The fate of Iraqi women, many believe, will greatly influence the lot of all women in the region.

At a time when the security situation dominates the scene, the overwhelming sense is one of fear. But the ultimate outcome of Saddam Hussein’s overthrow is still unknown. And Iraq today is a place where much is going on beyond the violence.

“If there were an extremely positive democratic development in Iraq, with women playing a major role, it would have a huge impact on the region,” says Mahnaz Afkhami, President of the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace.

Afkhami, however, says she is not particularly optimistic. She worries that Iraq, a country with a long tradition of social and political influence in the region, may go the opposite way, with conservative religious organizations acquiring more power, to the detriment of women.
In the Arab world women, in general, tend to have a very difficult time making their voices heard. There are enormous differences in their status in the more than 20 Arab countries. In some countries the situation is desperate. In a few, women are making enormous strides, achieving a measure of equality.

The recently released United Nations Arab Human Development Report concluded that Arab women have the lowest level of political and economic participation in the entire world. That, according to the report -- whose lead author is Egyptian -- has proved disastrous not only for democracy, but also for the economies of the region.

In a region where democracy is a rarity, women tend to have even fewer democratic rights than men. In addition, they are often subjected to strict interpretations of Islam, along with restrictive cultural traditions that often keep them out of the mainstream of political and economic activity.
In places like Kuwait, women are clinging to hopes that positive developments in Iraq will help them break through the social and political barriers blocking them from the political process.

Lulwah el-Mullah has spent decades in a relentless and so far unsuccessful struggle for the right of Kuwaiti women to vote and stand for election to the Emirate’s parliament. She believes that from Baghdad, the ancient seat of the Abassid Caliphate -- the Islamic civilization’s high water mark for learning and progress -- Iraq will again lead the way, exercising enormous influence over the Muslim and Arab world. If conditions improve in Iraq, she says, it could help turn the tide in Kuwait. “If things go well there,” she says, “people here will feel it is only normal for women to have the vote.”
During Saddam Hussein’s regime, women were not treated very differently from men. “Women, like men, could be – and were -- picked up at midnight and tortured,” according to Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch. “It was,” he says, “a non-discriminatory approach to repression.”

In the years after the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam Hussein allowed religious views to play a greater role in society, imposing new restrictions on women. But for decades before that, particularly before Saddam came to power, women held jobs in every field, enjoying what was probably the greatest degree of equality in the Arab world.

By contrast, women struggle for some of the most basic rights in other Arab countries. Saudi Arabia remains one of the most repressive regimes for women. Notoriously, women are not allowed to drive and they cannot travel without permission from their husband or father. They live lives segregated from men. They must, for example, enter buses from the rear and sit in separate sections. Daughters receive half as much inheritance as sons, and the testimony of one man equals that of two women.

According to the US State Department, women cannot even receive hospital treatment without the consent of a male relative.

Customs like these, or more extreme ones, such as Honor Killings, in which women are targeted for sexual misconduct, or Female Genital Mutilation, which is common in countries like Egypt, are often defended as cultural differences, which the West simply fails to understand. But Stork says that is no longer an acceptable argument. “It is women in these societies, first and foremost,” he explains, “who insist that is not an acceptable argument.”

By all accounts, women in Iraq are shouldering their responsibilities to the region with a great deal of energy. Behind the constant news of bombings, there is a flurry of political activity, receiving much less attention by the international press. “There is a tremendous amount of openness and a real drive to be involved in the reconstruction of the country,” according to Maha Muna, the senior advisor for governance, peace and security at UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women. At the moment, however, she admits that questions of security practically overwhelm every other issue.

According to Muna, “there is a real sense of hope.” Women, she says, are becoming organized. There are professional groups in all fields, there are organizations focusing on all areas of the reconstruction and the political process. But, at this pivotal moment, when some of the most important decisions are being made, the problem of safety is making it increasingly difficult for women to even leave their homes.

A report by Human Rights Watch "Climate of Fear: Sexual Violence and Abduction of Women and Girls in Baghdad,” says women have experienced a near epidemic of rapes and abductions. The report warns that the climate of insecurity is keeping many women from participating in the political life of the country.

Political life in Iraq is a vibrant free-for-all, with scores of political parties and more than a hundred newspapers sprouting all over the country.
When the US-led occupation only agreed to cede some power to a 25-member Governing Council, the faces of the group were mostly men. There were just 3 women members -- much to the chagrin of many in Iraq.
But more than the number, what will matter is what happens inside the Council. Muna says the key will be in the inner workings of the organization and in the product of their work. “We have to wait and see how big a role women will play there,” she says. “But, we don’t have to wait very long.”

The work is already starting, and Muna says there are already plans to make the ministry of planning, in particular, play a pivotal role in ensuring that women are part of all the ministries.

People who have looked at rebuilding situations like the one in Iraq say what happens in the early months is critical for the future. “In a post-conflict situation,” according to Muna, “you’re either going to have an opportunity for women to come and really play a role, or you’ll have society just go back and try to protect traditional ways and power bases.”
“I think the Iraqis can do it, “ she says. “I saw very qualified, very involved Iraqi women.” But there is one big caveat: there must be security, and Iraqis must be allowed to determine their own future.

Not everyone is optimistic. Hoda Elsada, an outspoken feminist and professor at Cairo University, says the dominant view in the so-called Arab Street is one of suspicion and concern. “People,” she says, “are worried about having American troops in the region.” The situation could lead to more regional instability, she says, and women could be the losers.
She already sees some old patterns remerging. Women, as before, are being told their concerns are a low priority when there are so many pressing issues. “It’s always women,” she notes, “who are asked to be quiet.”

Others fear the threat of fundamentalism, but from her vantage point across the border in Kuwait, Al-Mullah rejects the notion that fundamentalism will emerge victorious. “Knowing the Iraqi people and the Iraqi nation, it can never become a fundamentalist Islamic country, “ she says. “I know the Iraqi people.”

Clearly, this is one of history’s inflection points. Muna, who has watched women struggle in many areas of conflict agrees that there is the potential for greater conservatism. But, she adds, “there is also an amazing potential for a liberal progressive regime to come about.” Thousands of Iraqi women are working for that, and many more, throughout the Arab world, hope they will succeed.

But first, there must be security.

Frida Ghitis writes about world affairs. She is the author of “The End of Revolution: a Changing World in the Age of Live Television.”