Iraqi Women Seek a New Liberation

Karlos Zurutuza – IPS - Wednesday, 23 January 2013 (originally published 16 Jan)

Hanaa Edwar. An interview with Hanaa Edwar, general secretary of Iraqi Al Amal Association and head of the Iraqi Women Network. Image: IPS

BAGHDAD, Jan 16 2013 (IPS) – From full literacy declared in the seventies, Iraq is down to 40 percent literacy for women. From the first woman prime minister and the first woman judge in the Middle East in 1959, Iraq has slipped to a place where an abnormal number of widows struggle, and where child marriages are on the rise. Hanaa Edwar is putting up a fight to win Iraqi women their freedoms again.

Q: What kind of work does your organisation do to protect women rights?

A: Through Al Amal we have been administrating the Iraqi Women Network, an office that promotes outreach amongst local women organisations by enhancing relations with many international organisations as well as involving women in different activities and training courses. One of our biggest achievements has been the Parliament quota thanks to which 25 percent of the MPs are female. Now we’re working on a new campaign in the frame of the Arab Spring to protect personal freedoms . . .

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