Ex-Iraqi Leaders Discuss Rights

The future of women’s rights in Iraq appears promisinag, two former government ministers told a small group of students and faculty in the Lowell House Junior Common Room this past Thursday.

Former Iraq Minister of Municipalities and Public Works Nesreen Barwari and former Minister of the Environment Mishkat Al-Moumin discussed their personal experiences with women’s issues in Iraq and fielded questions from the audience during the panel discussion titled “What about Iraq’s Women?”

Barwari, a graduate of the Kennedy School of Government and a fellow at the Institute of Politics, spoke of her extensive involvement in the reconstruction underway since the US-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

“Women are the first victims of lack of services,” Barwari said, lamenting the difficulties caused by the destruction of infrastructure and utilities in Iraq. Yet, at the same time, the high percentage of female government workers allowed women to be a central “part of implementing the reconstruction policies,” she said.

According to Barwari, women must learn from both these challenges and opportunities so they can become more politically engaged and involved.

“No democracy can be complete without the participation of women,” she said.

Al-Moumin highlighted the environment as an issue of foremost importance to women.

“There is a great link between women and the environment,” she said. Protecting the “environment is about providing a clean and healthy environment to Iraqi people, not about protecting some endangered species or stopping some elephant from being killed,” she clarified.

She also spoke about the progress made by women since the downfall of the Hussein government.

According to Al-Moumin, under the Hussein regime, “the Iraqi woman did not get the chance to be treated like a citizen.”

To rectify this injustice, she recommended more female participation in the higher rungs of government.

“We need women at the core level of decision-making,” she concluded. “It’s been a long struggle for women,” she reflected, “and they deserve to be rewarded.”

Deena S. Shakir ’08, president of the Harvard Society of Arab Students, the group that organized the event, said that she liked that the discussion focused on very important, yet often overlooked, topics.

“Issues related to Iraq have been widely debated,” she explained, “but the issue of women and the future of women’s rights has not really been touched upon.”