Sunday, March 13, 2011

Women's rights in Iraq

"Iraq was once at the forefront of women’s rights. In the 1950s, it became the first Arab country to have a female minister and to have a law that gave women the ability to ask for divorces.

But under Saddam Hussein, women had no role in the government, and the resistance movements were dominated by men. After he was ousted in 2003, women successfully lobbied the American administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, to set up the constitutional requirement that a quarter of Parliament’s members be women."

Women's rights in Iraq were advanced by Abdul Karim Qassim, who was assassinated by Baathists.

2 comments :

Touta said...

Unfortunately, its not like after Saddam women suddenly regained their rights.

Its been prevalent throughout our history that women have been restricted.

Iraqi Mojo said...

Hi Touta,

It's unfortunate that women's rights in Iraq have taken a step backward since the fall of the dictator. It's quite embarrassing for secular Iraqi Shia to see the fundamentalist retards imposing their vision of Islamic law on all Iraqis. Very sad.

It seems the time during Abdul Karim Qassim's rule was the best time for Iraqi women.