Woman Activist calls for unification of efforts to avoid “woman’s marginalization in Iraq.”

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The former Environment Minister in north Iraq‘s Kurdistan government, Nermin Othman, has called for unificatin of women activities to face the campaigns aimed at “marginalizing” women in Iraq, demanding all political forces to implement the slogans they had raised during the last nationwide elections, regarding the women’s rights and to enable them practice their role in the society. “There is a common trend among women circles, carrying different ideological principles, to stand against keeping the women out of the new Iraqi government,” Othman told IraqiNews.com news agency, adding that Iraqi women “are trying to achieve joint action, through an organized national campaign to void the absence of women, through launching pressure on different political parties, demanding them to achieve the target they had raised before the elections, regarding the political rights of women.” Nermin Othman, a leader in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, also said: “there is a political, constitutional and ideological backwardness towards the woman’s rights,” reiterating necessity to “join and unify women activities, concentrating on the important goals for woman’s participation, not only in the political process, but also in the State’s legislative, judicial and executive institutions.” “The political forces must remember that the woman is half of the society, achieving several targets, because she had suffered enough in facing the former (Baath) regime,” confirming that “such role must encourage her to contribute acively in the political process, and not the opposite that had taken place in the formation of the cabinet, presented by Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to the Parliament recently.” Iraq‘s women component in the Parliament had protested the absence of women element in the new Iraqi cabinet, but for one post, considered by the Spokeswoman, Ala Talabani, in the Parliament’s session on 21/12/2010 that wintnessed the discussion of the proposed cabinet, as a “constitutional violence,” demanding the Iraqi President, government, parliament and leaders of political forces, to intervene to correct it. Noteworthy is that Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki’s previous cabinet, had included four women posts, and Maliki had promised to treat the issue of women’s absence in his new cabinet, during his resentation of the remaining candidates for his 42-seat cabinet. KNM (A) / SKH 413