Aftermath of War: Women Can Help Win the Peace in Iraq
by Swanee Hunt, San Francisco Chronicle op-ed
June 23, 2024

Paul Bremer, America's top U.S. official in Iraq, has been given inordinate authority to run that beleaguered country. He has rejected any notion of a transitional administration, which would have included a representative sampling of secular and religious leaders. Instead, Bremer is selecting an advisory council of Iraqi leaders who report directly to him.

In the chaos of that country's political vacuum, a strong-arm approach may be the lesser evil. But over the long term, that model will backfire. Our goal, after all, was to introduce democracy. Until Iraqis are allowed to elect their own leaders, the United States is functioning as an occupying conqueror. We risk the possibility of a civil revolt by religious radicals, who, if in control, would restrict hard-fought rights, particularly those of women.

Iraqi women have played a crucial role in sustaining their communities over the past two decades of intermittent war. They make up 55 percent of the adult population and are among the more highly skilled and professionally trained women in the Middle East. Nonetheless, they have been nearly excluded from past national leadership, and effectively shut out of current planning meetings. To his credit, Bremer has insisted on adding Iraqi women to his interim advisory council.

He will find there is a deep pool of talent. Iraqi expatriates, women from Iraq and policy-makers met recently in Washington (in a forum co-sponsored by Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) to devise concrete steps to include women in the reconstruction effort. Participants included the first woman judge in Iraq, the female minister of reconstruction and development of Kurdistan, and the president of the Assyrian Women's Union in Iraq, as well as 60 experts from nongovernmental organizations and key international and U.S. agencies. This multiethnic group worked out a blueprint for involving women in government, economic development, constitutional law and civil society.

They found that within the political sphere, we need to:

-- guarantee that women make up at least 30 percent of all governing bodies convened to rebuild and lead the nation;

-- establish a national collective council for transitional leadership that includes community and nongovernmental organizations led by women; and

-- create a coalition of Iraqi women to advocate for issues of critical concern.

The group also agreed that a healthy economy is fundamental to a viable democracy and that women's robust involvement in the business community will accelerate fiscal recovery. To support their activity, we need to: -- appoint a full-time gender expert for the U.S. Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq to make sure women's needs and priorities are met;

-- award building contracts to women-owned enterprises and gender-sensitive businesses; and

-- secure funding to provide women with education, legal aid and business and management skills training.

Women need to be involved in the earliest drafting of a new constitution to prevent the erosion of women's rights. The separation of religion from all civil, criminal and family law must be explicitly outlined. To safeguard women's legal rights, we need to:

-- draft a permanent, secular constitution that guarantees separation of powers, equality for all, freedom of religion and a bill of rights;

-- abolish laws and decrees that violate human rights; and

-- launch an educational campaign to inform Iraqis of their constitutional and legal protections in a democracy.

The international community must not ignore Iraq's most valuable untapped resource -- its women. The specter of an extremist Islamic government after Saddam Hussein's despotic rule can be met head on by women brought into positions of authority where they are an antithesis to radicals who believe that Islamic faith and Iraqi culture don't permit women's leadership.

Women have driven peace movements from El Salvador to Bosnia, Kosovo to Northern Ireland. They've been at the center of nongovernmental organizations, popular protests and electoral referendums. In October 2000, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1325, demanding the full inclusion of women in any peace process. That mandate was echoed by the G-8, spearheaded by our own government.

We must see beyond women as victims and recognize women as agents of change.

If we don't, nightmare scenarios of continuing unrest, an anti-Western regime, or a lengthy military occupation increase. If we do, the chances for a just, forward-thinking, and democratic society increase.

more articles by Swanee Hunt

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