Female Candidates Target of Violence

Although the interim constitution has guaranteed Iraqi women 25 per cent of the seats in the national assembly, many of the female candidates still keep in hiding for fear of violence from religious fundamentalists. Disha Uppal reports

photo: AP — Female students walk past a campaign poster in Baghdad, Iraq

Before Iraq's National Assembly election on 30 January, the tension is rising daily. It is generally expected that the election for a 275-seat national assembly will take place amid a climate of fear and insecurity. The election has divided Iraq, with several Sunni parties saying they will boycott the poll because they fear they can't vote in safety.

At the same time, most of the candidate's names have still not been made public for security reasons. Women candidates are facing security problems too, which is why most of them choose to remain underground.

Female representation guaranteed, but …

Iraq is preparing for its first nation-wide election since the Fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. Candidates lists have already been submitted by the political parties for the January 30th poll. One of every three names on the candidates lists has to be the name of a woman, who make up 55 percent of Iraq's population. The interim constitution has guaranteed them 25 percent of the seats in the national assembly.

But unlike other countries preparing democratic elections, many of the female candidates in Iraq are running in the election secretly. Many women refuse to acknowledge even to friends that they are on the candidate's list.

Sahar Mohammad Ahmad, a columnist in Baghdad, said that many female candidates are forced to hide their identities because of the threat of violence.

"Many of the candidate's lists are not complete," Sahar Mohhamad Ahmad says. "There are some names that are hidden from public. They fear to announce their name because they are threatened by so many groups that if they appear in the public or announce their participation in the election they are going to be killed."

Murder and kidnapping of candidates

Such obstacles are not new. In the past, Iraqi female candidates have been a target of violence by religious fundamentalists. There have been instances of female candidates being murdered or kidnapped for ransom in the last few months.

For example, a female candidate was killed in Baghdad in December – another candidate survived an assassination attempt but her son was killed.

On the other hand, many women still don't know about the upcoming election. According to Sahar Ahmed, the recent opinion polls done by their newspaper revealed that only one percent of Iraqi women know that an election is going to take place in Iraq. Most of them know hardly anything about who is running.

The impossibility of campaigning

"I have interviewed many Iraqi women about participation in the election", Sahar Mohhamad Ahmad explains. "They said that they do not know the person or candidate (that is) listed in the election. Even those who are nominated don't know about other participants in the election."

The lack of information about the candidates itself suggests that not many women candidates are campaigning so far to get votes. Many still don't know that women have the opportunity to campaign at all.

"They are not really campaigning around," says Sahar Mohhamad Ahmad. "They are campaigning within their list because of the bad security situation in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq. The candidates do not have a good atmosphere for campaigning, they are threatened and they fear to go in public. They can't even campaign personally."

The hope for winds of change

Sahar Ahmed agrees that the security situation has worsened recently. It is hard to predict what is going to happen in the next few days, she says. But she hopes that the election is a step towards peace and democracy and that it will bring stability in the society.

"I think it is going to bring changes and I hope they are going to be good ones because we as Iraqis have suffered for a long time, more than 35 years of suffering. We really need some good changes; first of all we need peace and stability. I think (there has been) enough of blood-shedding and killings."

With the hope for change, the election could offer Iraqi women an unprecedented chance to become part of the political process, which will contribute in shaping the future of Iraq. Hopefully, they will get to use this opportunity.

Disha Uppal