Baghdad — When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki introduced what he called a national partnership government two weeks ago, he included allies and adversaries, Arabs and Kurds, Shiite Muslims and Sunnis. One group, however, was woefully underrepresented.
Only one woman was named to Maliki's 42-member cabinet, sparking an outcry in a country that once was a beacon for women's rights in the Arab world and adding to an ongoing struggle over the identity of the new Iraq.
Whether this fledgling nation becomes a liberal democracy or an Islamist-led patriarchy might well be judged by the place it affords its women.
Nearly eight years after American-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, Iraq's record is decidedly mixed.
Maliki's last cabinet included four women, and since 2005 the Iraqi constitution has set aside one-quarter of legislative seats for females. Of 325 lawmakers elected in March, 82 were women, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Yet analysts said their political contributions so far have been limited, and activists and female lawmakers seized on their exclusion from the new cabinet as a sign of women's continued struggle to find a place in Iraqi public life.
"It's a mockery," said Hanaa Edwar, a founder of the Iraqi al Amal Association, a leading women's rights group.
"Especially when you take into consideration that this is a retreat from the previous cabinet…it's really a slap in the face for all of us."
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1 comment:
Too bad so sad. Our own rights are being attacked. Get our own house in order before we go meddling in another country's affairs, AGAIN.
How about our right's free from illegal search and seizure? To be free from government intrusion in our own body and home?
We are expected to be worried about shakee abdul homalitaliepstein's rights when they would just as soon cut off our head as look at us?
Tell them and their camels to stay on their side of the desert and let us do the same.
This would be funny if not so pathetic.
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