IRAQ: Interview: UN Women Helping "Raise Voice of Iraqi Women"

Among chaos in neighboring Syria and increasing refugees fleeing to Iraq, many Iraqi women are fighting to stop brutality against them and "raise the voice of Iraqi women" in the predominately male government, a senior UN official tasked with advancing gender equality in Iraq told Xinhua.

"Iraq has a particular relevance in trying to put in place UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which is about women and children in peace and security as a post-conflict country," as well as UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target 3 -- promoting gender equality and empowering women, the United Nations Women's representative to Iraq, Frances Guy, said in a recent telephone interview with Xinhua.

The UN agency has made a global commitment to empower women around the world, with a special focus on implementing Millennium 2015 goals and UN Security Council resolutions.

This goal "has been to create a balance at a national level -- so apply the 25 percent at a national level leaving some district councils with more female representation and some with less," she said.

The reflection of this resolution has impacted the UN agency's approach to "marginalized women," Guy added.

MARGINALIZED WOMEN

"Marginalized women" are categorized as women who face the "widespread instances of gender-based violence, including domestic violence, honor killings and trafficking," a March 2012 UN Women fact sheet said.

In Iraq, the UN Women has advocated for them, along with other UN agencies and the government by offering political and economic empowerment programs as well as campaigns to end violence against women.

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, which is the short form for the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

In doing so, UN member states took a historic step in accelerating the world body's goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Statistically speaking, "one in five women (21 percent) aged 15-49 has suffered physical violence at the hands of husbands, 33 percent have suffered emotional violence, and 83 percent have been subjected to controlling behavior by their husbands" in Iraq, the UN Women fact sheet added.

Consequently, the battle forced onto these women is complex and entangled with "years of dictatorship, international sanctions, and armed conflict," despite their activity in the political system over the last 50 years, Guy said.

"Women have been represented in government in Iraq since the 1950s but elected government is a new phenomenon" and "starting from 2005, women have been guaranteed a quota of 25 percent representation in government," Guy said, adding that leaves 75 percent of the positions open to both males and females.

The 25 percent legislation rule only applies to government at the national level and "does not always necessarily lead to successful representation of women, so there is an issue of making sure the representation is of high quality," Guy said.

"There is a push for each governorate to have 25 percent and for a change in the law to ensure this -- but it has not yet been presented to parliament, so I'm not sure if it will happen," she said.

UN PROGRAM

To urge female participation, the UN agency in Iraq will begin a program dedicated to empowering women in the country, she said.

The program will help women running in the April provincial elections by offering "a little bit of training in self confidence and running campaign management" so that women candidates are taken more seriously, she said.

By "supporting successful candidates in the future, we will give them some capacity building so they can do well," the UN representative said..

It will also encourage additional family protection laws throughout the country. For example, the region of Kurdistan, located in Northern Iraq, is the only area of the country to enact a family protection law.

The law, which is one and a half years old, "basically outlawed honor killings, which is a very sensitive subject in this part of the world," said Guy, the former British ambassador to Lebanon.

It has also inspired a draft law on family protection in Baghdad, so it is very powerful, the UN Women representative said.

"Iraq is a rich country and they can implement many things themselves with their own resources, but the main view is to try and get the policy framework in a place that will help them do so" and that is why UN Women continues to push for increasing representation for the Iraqi female population, she added.