Ala Talabani

Iraq

Despite the 1970 constitution’s acknowledgement that, “the Iraqi people is made up of two nationalities, the Arab nationality and the Kurdish nationality,” Kurds in northern Iraq faced discrimination, repression, and ultimately genocide at the hands of Saddam Hussein. Ala Talabani is a cofounder of the Iraqi Women’s High Council, a consultative body established in October 2003 that has drafted policies on the role of women in Iraq’s post-conflict reconstruction. The group’s advisory board includes Iraqi, British, and American women. A fierce advocate for Kurdish and women’s rights, Ms. Talabani joined the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of Iraq’s largest opposition parties, in 1986. Joining Iraq’s women’s movement three years later, she spent five years as vice president of the Kurdistan Women’s Union. She was fired from engineering and teaching positions for being Kurdish and for not being a member of the ruling Ba’ath Party, and she was detained for two days by the Iraqi security service and interrogated about her religious and political beliefs. Following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Ms. Talabani fled with her family to Iran, back to Iraq, and then to Syria. They eventually arrived in the United Kingdom, where she continued to speak on behalf of Kurdish and Iraqi women. She has met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and contributed to a number of British and Arab newspaper and magazine articles on the state of Iraq and its Kurdish population. Following the fall of Hussein’s regime, Ms. Talabani returned to Iraq, where she was nominated, though not appointed, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. She has since been nominated deputy to the minister of social affairs; the appointment is pending. She is a cofounder of Women for a Free Iraq.

Ms. Talabani’s peace-building efforts include:

• returning to Iraq to aid in reconstruction efforts and work for the rights and participation of women in an inclusive Iraqi society following the fall of the Hussein regime;
• heading the constitution and democracy committees at “Voices of Women in Iraq,” the first post-war conference to address the needs and resources unique to Iraq’s women; and
• organizing and chairing the conferences “The Heartland of Iraqi Women” and “Women and Political Participation,” bringing women together to push for their inclusion in the public sphere.

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