Female Representation: Iraq

With our own major economic problems little has been said about the upcoming elections in iraq. Saturday is the provincial election in iraq and among the 14,400 candidates about 4,000 are women. I have written before on the rates of women in parliaments around the world. Surprisingly Iraq has a law that mandates at least 25% of the parliament consists of women.This law also exists to ensure 25% representation on local councils. This law has obscured the battle that women fight for political and legal rights in Iraq.

The provincial elections in Iraq will be a test for women because of the way the elections will be run in this cycle. Previously Iraq used a party list system where the voters picked a party who would then pick who occupied the council seats. Now the lists are being made public and this increased transparency has led to both advantages and disadvantages for the female candidates.

The first and most obvious issue is the possibility of assassination or other threats by hard line militias. This is a serious threat as an article in the NYT illustrates,

Some female candidates have had their posters splattered with mud, defaced with beards or torn up, but most have been spared the violence that has claimed the lives of two male candidates and a coalition leader since the start of the year. But on Wednesday, a woman working for the Iraqi Islamic Party was killed when gunmen burst into her house in Baghdad and shot her 10 times in the chest, according to an Interior Ministry official.
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Liza Hido sat on a municipal council but was forced to quit in 2006 after receiving threatening e-mail and text messages on her cellphone.

She is running again this year but, still concerned for her safety, she is keeping her campaigning discreet, putting up no posters and making no public appearances. Instead, she restricts herself to private gatherings.

The lives of these women in Iraq are under constant threat from the hard liners. For example in Basra for women were killed in 2007 for not wearing a veil. They also struggle against the dominant male culture who tend to view women as domestics, sex objects and child bearers. This makes election to public office difficult. The oppressive cultural issues have led some women like Bushra al-Obeidi, a law professor at Baghdad University to abstain from participating.

She feels the odds are stacked against women, starting with laws she views as discriminatory and derogatory toward women — one allows a rapist to largely escape punishment if he marries his victim. Ms. Obeidi also has little faith in the commitment to gender equality among the current political leadership, which is dominated by religious parties.

“I assure you,” she said, “they are against women. They are lying to us.”

Her views on the uphill struggle that the women face are justified. There are concerns over the women who will eventually come to sit on the council. Apparently the women chosen on the larger party lists, and are likely to receive the highest level of support, are largely chosen for their tribal connections and not for their merits as representatives. This has been the case to a large extent in the parliament where women are present but lack the ability to make an impact.

Despite the obstacles that these women face in running for election there are many devoted woman's rights activists who are attempting to fight against the the militias and culture. The Times tells the story of, Mahdiya Abed-Hassan al-Lami,Amal Kibash and the story of Suhaila Oufi and Halima Abdul Jabber Ismail is found here. They have adopted the mentality that the only way to change the situation for women in Iraq is by being active, by working within the system.

But even if they win, they face numerous hurdles, particularly the entrenched attitudes of most Iraqi men, who view women as either sex objects or child bearers who have no place in the rough-and-tumble arena of politics. “This is the mentality,” said Safia Taleb al-Suhail, a member of Parliament and the daughter of a prominent Shiite tribal leader assassinated by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen in Lebanon in 1994. “We have to change it. How can we change it? By fighting.”

I think that the only way for women to advance their rights inside iraq is to fight, to take part in the system. The principles of the social movements in america have made it clear that only through struggle and commitment to change will things get better. If the qualified women like al-Obeidi refuse to get involved because of the daunting obstacles then its hard to see things changing. I know that's easy to say since i live in America where i dont have to fear for my life for going out in public. I cannot condemn al-Obeidi but i can support the women who do risk the reprisals to fight for the woman's rights by getting elected.

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McCain Actually Has a Good Idea

Actually, not McCain per se -- but some one in his employ. This person is Taylor Griffin, a veteran of the Bush White House and Treasury Department, who serves McCain as a senior adviser. His idea is contained in a leaked memo, the "Economic Communications Plan", obtained by the Huffington Post. The core of this memo is that McCain should target the economy as an issue with a specific focus on families. This is actually a smart plan.

The entire memo is not available but a significant amount is discussed in the HuffPo article. There is a lot there that is unoriginal and weak including the painting of Obama as a “Job Killer”. It relies on very old standbys of the GOP painting the left as in bed with “trial lawyer” and wanting to “raise taxes”. One part though is very important to discuss. That is the targeting of women and lower income families regarding economic difficulty.

"People are tired of big corporations, lobbyist and special interests who they feel prosper at their expense," the memo reads. "People must understand that John McCain is not only thinking of their future, but their children's futures as well."

To do this, McCain's camp plans to utilize a number of tactics, including "family budget roundtables, grocery store visits," and "roundtable events heavily tilted towards women to discuss the pressures the economy is placing on family finances and how McCain's plan would help." The campaign also will work the fourth estate. As detailed in Taylor's memo, McCain will "provide compelling set of programming and surrogate activity to drive media interest," and "mobilize economists in target states supporting the McCain plan to engage the media in support of our plan."

So far Obama has shown no signs of any weakness among women and very little among lower class persons. Among Women Obama is leading 48 – 39 in the Gallup Daily Tracking for July 28 – Aug 3 and he was up 56 – 34 in a Research 2000 Poll for the end of July. One potential reason that Obama has not shown any weakness in this area is that McCain has failed to properly execute on the potential inherent in the strategy. Digby explains the potential,

I belong to a non-political website that includes women across the country from all economic strata, educational backgrounds and ages. Those who are working class and young as well as retirees are starting to talk, non-stop, about the economy, specifically prices. These aren't political people, as I said. Indeed, they don't even frame these discussions in political terms. They just comment on how hard it's getting for them to adequately feed their families, budgets are tight, they are cutting back. They ask for advice on how to make their dollars stretch and complain that they can't give their kids what they want. The pinch is very real.

McCain is smart to focus on that particular group, if that's what he's doing, because they are really looking for help. The fact that he's the last man on the planet to give it to them isn't relevant. If he's speaking to them and they feel they can trust him they may just vote for him. All they know is that they are having a hard time making ends meet and the details are probably less important than the idea that he knows they are hurting and promises to help.

Exactly. At this point, it looks like there is no significant amount of lingering resentment over Clinton’s defeat among her female base. That does not mean that it could not be built back up by an effective marketing plan. McCain has done a terrible job of executing his strategy. His message is not getting out. People saw him in a cheese aisle but could not possibly connect it to his economic plan because he does not promote any economic plan. He has been talking constantly on energy issues linked to national security. McCain has not effectively linked anything he will do to lowering prices and relieving the burden on families.

He has been totally off this message as his attacks following Obama’s trip abroad were too vague and character based. They were not connected to the economy in a solid way. McCain talked about off shore drilling but that plan was undercut because of the fight over the effectiveness of proper tire pressure. He lost that fight and made his plan look bad. In addition, the media is not carrying his water regarding his economic ideas. We should be seeing McCain on a Clintonesque listening tour in the homes of families to talk about the price issues. Simply focusing on “jobs” and “small businesses” is not going to be enough.

I may not be a political genius but if you going to attack Obama as being a celebrity shouldn’t you connect that back to his job? An attack on Obama for being abroad giving speeches to big crowds while American families suffer seems like it might have some punch. Get McCain in the Senate for once and have him introduce a bill to do something regarding food prices or the economy. McCain works for the American family while Obama is off having fun. McCain has no problem lying to people so he should have no problem attacking Obama like this or claiming his Economic Plan would help people.

Domestic Issues are generally Democratic issues but much of this campaign has been spent talking about Iraq and the “surge” or other matters of foreign policy in an attempt by Obama to bolster his credentials in this area. McCain has an opportunity to play the knight errant for those worried about the financial security of their family. He can play on their fear and scare them into voting for him. Of course, all of this assumes that McCain can get his act together.

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