In
light of International Women's Day as well
as the recent appointment of Baghdad's first
female mayor, civil engineer Zekra Alwach,
it's an opportune moment to remember the
many "firsts" enjoyed by Iraqi women.
The nation produced the
first female judge, ambassador, and
government minister in the Arab world. Iraqi
women benefited from state subsidised
childcare and education; they once formed
about half the public sector workforce and
50 percent of the country's doctors.
Sadly, as the
12th anniversary of a disastrous invasion
and occupation looms, there is another
rather grim "first" to ponder.
Iraqi women are arguably
the first to see their status go from one of
the highest in the region to one of the
lowest, in less than two decades. (Now
followed closely by their sisters in
neighbouring Syria.)
-- Hadani Ditmars, "Iraqi Women: 'Things Were So Much Better Before'" ("ICH"
- "Al
Jazeera").