Washington, DC  -  Later this month the people of the United States and Iraq will mark the first anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. When the war began on March 20, 2003 advocates for peace hoped that the people of Iraq would have the chance to rebuild their country in peace and freedom, under the rule of law. Nearly a year later a group of Iraqi women will participate in a forum on Capitol Hill assessing the future of their nation and the role of women in it.

The forum - titled “Women and Democracy – the Path to a Free and Equal Iraq” - is a feature of the Third Annual Women’s Peace Breakfast celebrating International Women’s Day. Sponsored by U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, the event will be held Monday morning, March 8th, from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. in room 1539 of the Longworth House Office Building.

 

“Reports from Iraq indicate that Iraqi women have mixed feelings about how to celebrate this year’s observance of International Women’s Day and the war in their ancestral home a year after the fact,” said Congresswoman Johnson. “Although they are now free from Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship and the burden of sanctions imposed by the United Nations, many Iraqi women believe they will face a new set of problems when the United States hands over power to Iraq on the 30th day of June.”

 

A number of women with direct experience in Iraq will discuss these issues at the peace breakfast. The panel includes Harriett Babbitt, the Senior Vice President of Hunt Alternatives Fund/Women Waging Peace; Zainab Salbi, the President of Women for Women International and Zainab Al-Suwaij, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of American Islamic Congress.

Other panelists include Tamara Quinn, the Director of the Women’s Alliance for a Democratic Iraq; and Shamin Rasam, the former Director of Radio and Television of the Coalition Provisional Authority. In addition, Jodie Evans, the Co-Founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace, will also present a report on CODEPINK’s findings from a women’s delegation that traveled to Iraq in January.

The women of Iraq have shouldered the lion’s share of suffering in their country, which has experienced war for the third time in a quarter of a century. Since Saddam’s downfall and subsequent capture by U.S. forces, an unprecedented spate of rapes and kidnappings have occurred. Reportedly, many Iraqi women are afraid to even venture out of their homes.  A number of women fear that under the new Iraqi constitution and government they will lose many of the rights they have cherished.

 

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