*EPF208 01/06/2004
Iraqi Women's Group Seeks to Empower Women in New Iraq
(Group in Mosul offers training and social support) (580)

By David Shelby
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- A group of Iraqi women in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul are seizing the opportunity offered by the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime to address gender issues and work towards creating a new role for women in the future of Iraq.

Since May 2003, the Women's Social and Cultural Society of Mosul has been reaching out to women in the community who were abused and disempowered by the previous regime in order to provide them with greater opportunities for the future.

Ohio Congresswoman Deborah Pryce visited the women's center in Mosul in November when she led the first all-women's U.S. congressional delegation to Iraq.

"The speed in which the organization has grown is evidence of just how serious the Iraqi women are about gaining respect, equality, and independence for all people within their own country," Pryce told the Washington File.

With the help of the 101st Airborne, USAID and the Coalition Provisional Authority, the society is providing vocational training, skills improvement, social support and encouragement to the women of Mosul.

The society provides literacy classes, English classes and computer skills training in addition to recreational facilities for the girls and women of the community.

It also seeks to provide funding and technical support to women engaged in micro-enterprise projects. In addition to their current functions, the women plan to establish a kindergarten in order to help working mothers.

Perhaps most importantly, the society offers a venue for women of all generations and all social backgrounds to meet and discuss their experiences with the goal of encouraging them to seek roles of greater responsibility in a new Iraq.

The society now counts more than 200 members with a variety of ethnic, religious and professional affiliations represented.

"The members of the Women's Social and Cultural Society of Mosul must be applauded for their commitment to end decades of oppression against women by fighting to give them a voice and a respected role of leadership within their communities," Pryce said in a congressional statement in November.

Under the former regime, women were subject to numerous forms of oppression. Many were left widows as their husbands were killed in front of their families or simply carried away to unknown fates.

The women, who were then the sole breadwinners in the household, typically confronted numerous official barriers to working outside the home.

The regime also forbade the women to remarry.

The economic opportunities for women in Saddam's Iraq were also restricted by a lack of education. Pryce reports that 76 percent of Iraqi women are illiterate. The Women's Social and Cultural Society of Mosul seeks to redress these abuses.

"I find it incredibly courageous that the members of the Women's Social and Cultural Society of Mosul are standing up to centuries of oppression in Iraq by empowering women through education," Pryce told the Washington File.

While the women participating in the congressional delegation expressed their wholehearted support for the Society's activities at the local level, another part of their goal was to offer encouragement for these and other Iraqi women to move beyond the local level and establish a voice for women in the national political arena.

"These women are truly creating a new ideal within their country as they promote social, political and educational equality for all Iraqis," Pryce said in her congressional statement.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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