A small election miracle

Local elections in Iraq show that women make progress on their long way to equality. But there are still obstacles.

A new representative, maybe (via jamesdale10, Flickr)

Iraq’s local election will not only be a test whether the worst days of violence are behind the country: The first vote since 2005 could also signal the way to a truly democratic society, as out of the 14,400 candidates, close to 4,000 are women.  This, after years of sectarian strife and extremism gaining ground, comes close to a miracle, even more as Iraq is still a macho society.

This is reflected by the problems women have: Even though it is not a faceless election this time and campaign posters can be seen everywhere, a lot of women prefer not to have photos of themselves shown as they fear repression and gossip; there have also been reports of death threats. Others run, but do not think they will have much of a say as, even though there is a (disputed) quota, party politics are dominated by males.

But we have to remember that in cities like Basra, women were threatened to be killed if they set a foot in front of their door a year ago. This shows that Iraq has come much closer to being a democracy than imaginable before the surge, though it will be unclear for years whether this will last. Ironically, things under the American occupation had gotten worse before they got better: During Sadam Hussein’s reign of terror, women did not have political influence (nobody outside his clan did, actually), but at least their basic rights were guaranteed.