Iraq

A little more than two weeks before Iraq’s provincial elections, there is widening anger that the published version of the election law has only a weak provision to set aside seats for women. Early versions of the law, which governs the election of Iraq’s 18 provincial councils, included a firm guarantee that women would have at least 25 percent of the seats — the same percentage mandated by the Constitution for the numbers of women in Parliament.

Women candidates are facing an uphill struggle in Saturday's provincial elections in strongly conservative Muslim Iraq. In other areas, posters with photos of women have been pulled down, prompting one candidate on the Iraqi Teachers' List in the province of Diwaniyah, Hanaa Kazem, to complain to the electoral commission.
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Iraq's next general election will be held on Jan. 30, the deputy parliament speaker said Monday.

16 Mar 2012 - The Arab Spring continues to blow winds of change in the Middle East. There is no doubt the direction these countries are heading in will affect Arab societies and personal rights. But recently, the focus has been on women in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

Over the last eight years, Iraqi women have become increasingly active in politics, taking on some of the country’s most vexing issues — peace and security, economic empowerment, social justice, education and the environment. Their goal is to achieve consensus across regional, political and sectarian lines in a nation where coexistence and compromise are not everyday occurrences.