Iraqi Women's League Conference

The 5th Conference of Iraqi Women’s League
(24-25 July 2005)

Held under the slogan: “A Peaceful and Democratic Iraq is the Guarantee for Women's Equality and Children's Happiness”

The 5th Conference of Iraqi Women’s League (IWL) was held in Baghdad during the period 24-25 July 2005, under the slogan: “A Peaceful and Democratic Iraq is Guarantee for Women’s Equality and Children's Happiness”. It was attended by 98 delegates. The opening session was given the name “Martyr Ayda Yassin”, in memory of the prominent leading figure of IWL who “disappeared” after being detained in 1980 by security forces of Saddam’s dictatorial regime.

The Conference endorsed a general report that dealt with major developments during the past decades and their impact on Iraqi society and the position of Iraqi women.

The report pointed out that the social and economic conditions in the country had deteriorated enormously as a result of the total and all-encompassing crisis of dictatorship during its reign of repression, as well as its internal and external wars. Iraqi women were in the forefront of victims of dictatorship, burdened with the consequences of catastrophic political decisions. They had to shoulder full responsibility for their families as a result of the loss of sons or husbands, whether in terror campaigns of physical liquidation or during the three wars waged by the ousted regime. Women had also the job of caring for war victims who were left disabled. They also became targets for political detention, humiliation, rape and various kinds of torture in prisons, and often ending up in mass graves.

As a result of poor economic conditions and rampant poverty, women were forced to take up difficult and dangerous jobs, under extremely complex conditions. They came to face directly the manifestation of social corruption, as well as systematic corruption practised by the regime’s leading figures and stooges. All these factors led to the fragmentation of families. The regime encouraged the revival of outdated customs and traditions that humiliate women and degrade their dignity. ,This in turn was used as a justification for the oppression and injustice against women, within family relations or in marriage, both as mothers and divorced women. Legislations and laws were enacted that debased the human dignity of women and reinforced their women’s position as an underclass.

The report drew attention to the “Faith Campaign” personally launched by the dictator Saddam Hussein, that deprived women of the rights that they had won over previous decades with their own struggle and supported by democratic and progressive forces in Iraqi society. The dictatorship’s policy during its final years meant that women were trapped at home, isolated from fields of work and general activity.

The report added that the above-mentioned conditions, that were described only briefly, did not end with the shameful downfall of dictatorship in April 2003. Our Iraqi people and social forces aspiring for social change, including the Iraqi Women’s League (IWL), are therefore determined to fight to tackle the legacy of dictatorship. Accordingly, the IWL strives to lay the proper foundations for a civilized society, based on democracy in economic, social and cultural fields. This vision shapes its understanding of social change, progress, women’s rights and their fundamental rights.

The report dealt with the position of Iraqi women after the war and the fall of dictatorship, with new political and social manifestations emerging with subsequent effects on all Iraqis, especially Iraqi women. Iraq now witnesses a new situation:, getting rid of dictatorship but falling under occupation. Refusal by the occupying forces to hand back political power and national sovereignty, as well as the responsibility for security, to the Iraqis, and the destruction of principal structures of the Iraqi state, has led to the deterioration of the security situation. Gangs of organised criminals, along with extremist reactionary forces and remnants of the dictatorial regime, are waging bloody terror against the Iraqi people under the pretext of resisting the occupation. Iraqi women have become an easier target for these gangs. In addition to arbitrary car bombings and explosions, women have been kidnapped, held as hostages. In addition, women have suffered from murder, barbaric slaughtering and rape.

Meanwhile, the forces of political Islam in the southern and central areas of the country have exploited the social atmosphere resulting from decades of dictatorship’s rule, and its so-called “Faith Campaign”, to put forward their political alternative, with practical measures to implement their concept for the “Islamization of society”. This is achieved through imposing constraints on public and personal freedoms of individuals, especially with regard to women’s personal and civil freedoms. In this context, a psychological atmosphere has been promoted to impose changes on Iraqi women in a coercive manner, , for example imposing the wearing of Hijab in some areas. The attempt to abolish the Personal Status Law (in late 2003) signalled the intention to reverse women’s civil status. It has to be pointed out that the existing Personal Status Law was actually based on various denominations of Islamic law, and the alternative meant a return to sectarian jurisprudence in the field of personal status.

Iraqi women have managed to participate in political life during the past two years, though in a limited way. A number of women participated in the Governing Council, the Interim and Transitional Governments, and the National Assembly. The Iraqi State’s Administrative Law (the interim constitution) stipulated that the percentage of women in the elected National Assembly must be no less than 25%. Democratic women’s organisations played an active role in defeating Decree 137, issued by the Governing Council (in late 2003), that was effectively aimed at abolishing the Personal Status Law. An Iraqi Women Network was also set up, encompassing more than 50 women organisations.
During the past two years, the Iraqi Women’s League (IWL) participated in a host of activities concerned with women’s rights. IWL activists led the first women’s demonstration in Baghdad after the fall of dictatorship. The League initially faced the task of rebuilding its organisations in most Iraqi cities under the above-mentioned complex conditions. But this task faced a lot of obstacles as a result of the prevailing security and political conditions, thus hindering its fulfilment to the level desired by IWL. Further consideration of the current situation and work is needed, developing plans to utilize the potential of IWL.
The essence of IWL’s work, throughout its long history of struggle over more than half a century, lies in connecting between its fight for the freedom and sovereignty of the homeland and the struggle for women rights and children’s happiness. This is based on its awareness that women’s liberation can only be achieved with the liberation of the society. It is not an organisation that exists outside the context of the Iraqi society’s history and its political, social and economic contradictions. IWL also believes that the liberation of women is not an elitist type of work, or one that is part of charitable or humanitarian activity. IWL’s work and struggle is aimed for women’s rights and freedoms that are achieved as part and parcel of the struggle for social change, progress and democracy.
The report also presented IWL’s understanding of civil society organisations, as a means for public benefit rather than personal benefit or for the purpose of hegemony by political parties that are in power or outside it. Struggle must be waged against the latter tendencies, and against anything that leads to marginalizing IWL’s role and conception of civil society organisations.
Civil society is not an alternative to struggle for social change and progress; rather it is one of its manifestations. Overlooking this fact, or not acting in accordance with it, in spite of being real advocates of civil society as part of our developmental and enlightened project, will harm the future of civil society and nullify its real functions. This is why IWL’s work in the field of civil society organisations needs to be connected with our struggle to deepen and consolidate democracy.
Work Among Women Masses
The experience of IWL’s work throughout its long history has highlighted the fact that it becomes an effective mass force in society, and achieves gains for Iraqi women, when it is engaged in daily mass work, actively involved in residential areas and women’s gatherings, raising daily demands, helping to tackle social problems in urban areas, promoting health awareness, opening centres for eradicating illiteracy, and through raising the level of awareness of women in the countryside.
IWL activists had never been tied down to office work … IWL will not emulate some women fronts and organisations that want to gain a foothold through spending money or grants among women with the aim of buying off people. The secret of IWL’s success lies in developing close, strong and steady relations with the mass of women.
The need for the existence of IWL lies in undertaking this leading role, fearless of giving sacrifice, as it had often done throughout its history. Furthermore, unless the forces of political Islam can be countered by mass democratic struggle, any constitutional and political gains that have been made may be stripped of their democratic content.
The report drew attention to the concept of women’s rights on national and international levels, and the need to defend these rights. IWL will follow developments in women’s movements internationally, interact with them, and participate in formulating the principal guidelines concerning women rights on international level. Undertaking this task successfully requires an in-depth study of our society, drawing programs on the basis of existing facts, and relying on figures and statistics.
The report stressed the need for rejuvenating IWL’s methods of work, by discarding spontaneity, and acting in a spirit of solidarity as women fighting for a cause. This requires conveying accumulated experience, and helping young cadres to assume their role in IWL’s leadership, with the consent and support of women masses. It is essential to emphasize the issue of expanding democracy in daily work, involving as many members as possible in decision making, displaying transparency and a critical spirit, and empowering IWL organisations in the provinces and towns.
A spirit of initiative, collective work and approaching the masses on the basis of properly considered programmes, can help to achieve a qualitative change in IWL’s work.
Immediate Tasks
The report concluded by calling for the need to act as follows:
- Providing security and peace in our homeland should be one of the principal tasks for IWL.
- Struggle to end the occupation and achieve full restoration of national sovereignty, and to eliminate the legacy of dictatorship, especially in the fields that concern women’s rights and their fundamental freedoms.
- Empowering women and ensuring their full participation, equally, in all aspects of society’s life, including participation in the decision making process and holding positions in government, are fundamental issues for achieving equality, development and peace. Possible alliances must therefore be developed to achieve this objective, and to increase the present minimum 25% quota for women participation in the National Assembly to 40%. It also requires ensuring active participation of women in drafting the constitution, and that includes Iraq’s endorsement of all international covenants and agreements that guarantee women’s rights.
- Eliminating poverty through reliance on economic growth, social development, environment protection and providing social security require the involvement of women in economic and social development, achieving equal opportunities, and equal and full participation of women and men. All forms of pressure must therefore be exercised on the authorities, now and in future, so that this orientation is implemented in government policies. It must not be considered a minor demand.
- The battle of democratic freedoms, the battle of enlightenment, rationalism and the culture of tolerance and accepting the ‘Other’, and strengthening dialogue, is a principal battle for IWL. This is so because women’s rights and their principal freedoms are very closely connected to achieving these objectives. The IWL has to work for the unity in action of the women’s movement on the basis of diversity, pluralism and respect for the cultural specificities of the constituent components of Iraqi people, through developing forms of coordination and joint action, while stressing the need for maintaining IWL’s independence in its decisions and general policies. The IWL believes that its main field of work in this respect lies among women masses, to win more gains for women and guarantee, in practice, the rights and freedom stipulated in the constitution and relevant legislations.