Politics
Iraq: Women MPs to press government on country's ills
Baghdad, 25 Sept. (AKI) - The Iraqi parliament's newly formed women's caucus will pressurise the government to roll out concrete policies to help victims of the war in Iraq, including widows and orphans, war victims' families and Iraqi refugees, Ala Tahsin Habib, a deputy for the Kurdish Alliance in the Iraqi parliament, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
"By creating a women's parliamentary group in Iraq, we want the government to implement a series of stalled projects and to find solutions to the problems afflicting Iraqi society," she said.
Speaker of the 275 seat parliament Mahmud al-Mashadani announced on Sunday the creation a cross-party womens' grouping made up of 73 female deputies.
"The number of parliamentarians in the grouping is not yet definitive. The door remains open to those who want to join," said Habib.
"This women's caucus has not happened by chance, but is the fruit of many months of hard work and meetings with leaders of the various parliamentary groupings who have backed this step," she continued.
The women's caucus will not obstruct other parliamentary groupings, but will back them in a way that will enable women MPs to emerge as efficient actors in the legislature.
"We are still marginalised," Habib said.
The new women's parliamentary grouping "can play a prominent role trying to bring together disparate viewpoints held by the different political parties that MPs belong to," said female Shiite deputy Samira al-Musawi.
The creation of the womens' caucus "does not mean the MPs have abandoned their original parliamentary political groupings," she stressed.
"It has not yet been decided how the women's bloc will be led and run, but it has been decided to adopt majority voting," she said.
Female MPs have also reached an accord on "general principles," such as the rejection of violence and the support for national reconciliation efforts. They have also agreed to press the government to issue stalled legislation, especially that which promotes womens' rights in parliament," according to al-Musawi.
"All the parliamentary groupings back the women's caucus and say it can help bring them closer together," she concluded.
"By creating a women's parliamentary group in Iraq, we want the government to implement a series of stalled projects and to find solutions to the problems afflicting Iraqi society," she said.
Speaker of the 275 seat parliament Mahmud al-Mashadani announced on Sunday the creation a cross-party womens' grouping made up of 73 female deputies.
"The number of parliamentarians in the grouping is not yet definitive. The door remains open to those who want to join," said Habib.
"This women's caucus has not happened by chance, but is the fruit of many months of hard work and meetings with leaders of the various parliamentary groupings who have backed this step," she continued.
The women's caucus will not obstruct other parliamentary groupings, but will back them in a way that will enable women MPs to emerge as efficient actors in the legislature.
"We are still marginalised," Habib said.
The new women's parliamentary grouping "can play a prominent role trying to bring together disparate viewpoints held by the different political parties that MPs belong to," said female Shiite deputy Samira al-Musawi.
The creation of the womens' caucus "does not mean the MPs have abandoned their original parliamentary political groupings," she stressed.
"It has not yet been decided how the women's bloc will be led and run, but it has been decided to adopt majority voting," she said.
Female MPs have also reached an accord on "general principles," such as the rejection of violence and the support for national reconciliation efforts. They have also agreed to press the government to issue stalled legislation, especially that which promotes womens' rights in parliament," according to al-Musawi.
"All the parliamentary groupings back the women's caucus and say it can help bring them closer together," she concluded.
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