Iraqi Women in Pursuit of Freedom, Part Five - 2003-04-15

Iraqi Women in Pursuit of Freedom, Part Five - 2003-04-15. We were in a discussion session with women who had fled their homeland of Iraq in search of freedom and a life of liberty in America. Did they ever think that their country would see liberation from individual tyranny, caught between freedom and justice on one side and oppression and tyranny on the other? This may be a question that all seekers of freedom have pondered. However, undoubtedly, if they did not believe that freedom and justice would eventually triumph over oppression, tyranny, and repression, they would not have risen to fight... Now we continue the dialogue of Iraqi women as the regime of Saddam Hussein has fallen in Iraq, and with the opening of the doors to a free society—though the path to building it is long and arduous—hope for the functioning of democracy has flourished in that society. In the previous section, Ms. Gilly responded to a question by saying that we had experienced a small example of women's participation in the reconstruction of society, certainly not in Saddam Hussein's Iraq but in Iraqi Kurdistan, where women participate in legislation, judiciary, and ministry, and are involved in the structure of their society. Continuing the session, Ms. Dobriansky, the Director of Global Affairs, Human Rights, and Women at the U.S. Department of State, asks if you can keep us informed about your future activities and programs. Ms. Gilly responds, certainly. I believe that improving the living conditions of women in Iraq depends on the Iraqi women themselves and what they want to do or what they will do with their current situation. I do not think anyone can do anything for them instead. The speaker then turns to the Iraqi women present at the session and says, ladies: it depends on us women who are sitting here. It depends on us Iraqi women what we want to do and what we can do. Our civil duty as women, women who have been able to take advantage of this privilege to experience and learn from the real democracy present in Europe and the United States, is to take as much of our knowledge as we can to our homeland and show Iraqi women what a heavy responsibility they have and how much they can take effective steps towards democracy, as they possess a unique perspective and are among the most educated women in the Middle East. Unfortunately, due to the violence and brutality of the regime—a regime that has recently collapsed—they never had the opportunity to participate in the fate of their country. A fate that was marked by the Saddam Hussein regime, with killings, beheadings under the pretext of disloyalty to husbands, and glorifying the murderers in front of women. I am confident that with the arrival of freedom in Iraq, we women will share in the fate of our country, and let us not forget that that land needs us, it needs all of us.