Essay - Iraqi Women Regardless if One is for or Against the...

Iraqi women

Regardless if one is for or against the War in Iraq, ***** hope is that the lives of the Iraqi people are improved and some form of democratic nation ***** built that provides for equal rights. The previous situation of Muslim ***** ***** Iraq was restrictive at best. What has been the impact over ***** last five years? It appears by the research noted below, ***** women's ***** may not be high on ***** political agenda and women still have to accomplish a great deal be*****e they can ***** an equal voice..

***** women, even the most conservative, ***** beginning to reconcile the tenets ***** religious laws with the desire to be part of a new political and economic g*****nment. Zainab Salbi, who runs women's centers across Iraq through her U.S.-based nonpr*****it organization Women for ***** International, states that even a group of Shiite women sought funding in their hometown of Karbala for a women's center with both a prayer space alongside a room for computer terminals ***** English lessons for women (Hunt, Posa, 2004).

Yet in a 2004 report by Hunt *****nd ***** in Foreign Policy, the authors note that despite ***** fact that President George W. Bush's administration points to the advancement of women as a "*****piece" of its Ir*****q strategy, "good intentions have seemingly substituted coherent policy." The US Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), received millions of dollars from the ***** for women's professional training in order ***** *****m ***** be represented ***** the ***** government. However, after ***** Bush ended major combat operations in May of 2003, the ***** began using Iraqi women as a bargaining chip in political negotiations with religious factions. By failing to include a representative number of women in Iraq's *****, the U.S. sent a message to other countries ***** the region that "women's ***** engagement is not, in fact, ***** pillar ***** democracy the *****est portrays."

In this 2004 report, it is ***** ***** prior to the ***** invasion, the U.S. created a government-in-waiting led by an exile ***** ***** only three women appointed to the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council; Minister of Public Works Nesreen Berwari was the only female named for ***** Cabinet ***** Ministers. At that time, although over 80 women served on city, district, and neighborhood councils in Baghdad, far fewer served in the 18 Iraqi provinces, ***** none had been ***** a provincial governor. Further, no women were appointed to the 24-member constitutional drafting committee, which produced the document ***** served as ***** interim constitution.

***** order ***** Iraq ***** grow and prosper, it will need entrepreneurs to advance the economy (Looney, 2005). A large proportion of those involved in *****day's in*****al economy, as in past *****, are women and children, a result of *****ir impoverishment ***** ongoing exclusion from the form*****l economy. However, on the whole, the educational background ***** women continues to hinder *****m in their business efforts. All ***** face the challenges of Ba'athist ties during the ***** regime and ***** power of