Evaluation of Women's Political Participation in Iraq before and after 2003

Abstract

Iraqi women suffer from the political domination of man who seeks to undermine and curtail women's roles, especially in relation to decisions and issues crucial to a number of laws that require acceptance or rejection. There are significant challenges have that faced women as an obstacle to their participation in political life alongside men. The most important challenge is the Arab social heritage which restricts women to seize the available opportunity to get the position of a sovereign post or as a decision-maker. Although the Iraqi Constitution guarantees the participation of women in the political process, such participation remained limited. On this basis, the role of Iraqi women in political participation is very limited and it is associated mainly with heads of blocs and not the member himself, whether man or woman. Despite the limited participation of Iraqi women, especially in political fields (parliament, ministries and institutions), but their roles are still evident in the army, police and judiciary fields, even they outnumber men sometimes. Nevertheless, the Iraqi women differ from women in women in Middle East because they are living in a country that had been suffered many wars and calamities. However, they are still performing their role naturally, thus the decision-makers in the Iraqi government must take into account this segment, which is half of the society.

Keywords

• Evaluation of Women, Political Participation, Iraq