SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Women’s groups are demanding a greater role for women in government, as political groups in Kurdistan engage in discussions for the formation of a new cabinet.
“What we have got so far, only one female minister, is wrong,” says Bahar Munzir, a women’s rights activist. “Capable women can run this country. Why aren’t they given a chance to fill the right positions?”
She says that in Kurdistan’s “patriarchal political system” women are not only deprived of ministerial posts, but lower managerial positions as well.
“Fifty percent of the posts should be given to women because women make up half of society,” she says.
Abubakir Haladini, a senior official of the Islamic Union, believes that if there were more women in government, that would reflect a larger portion of the Kurdish society.
“If there are more women in the government the ministers can convey their views and better reach out to women,” he says. “One woman minister in the cabinet cannot possibly represent all the women in society.”
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 and by the initiative of US administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, women in Baghdad and Erbil have a 25 percent quota of parliamentary seats.
Haladini believes the same rule should apply to government posts.
“The participation of women in the previous cabinet was only symbolic and meant as appeasement,” he charges. “It wasn’t to strengthen the presence of women in government.”
Mahmoud Othman, director of Sulaimani’s statistics department, says that more than 40 percent of government employees are women. But he says that most management and ministerial posts are still held by men.
Chinar Saadullah, the former minister of Anfal and Martyrs, says that Kurdistan is already witnessing a significant number of women in the public sphere, but that women must demand a greater role.
“Women should raise their voices, create pressure groups and not abandon their rights,” she advises. Since 1992 and the formation of the first cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) there has never been more than one woman in a ministerial position.
Critics say that political parties are flexible in agreeing to women in parliament, but that they are inflexible when it comes to government jobs.
Nukhsha Nasih, the mayor of the town of Byara, says: “The government shouldn’t put women in the government only for decoration. They should be given important ministries too. And women should be put in their posts based on their skills and expertise, not on their party connections.”
