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The engagement of women in Iraq’s political process has been a major focus of NDI’s efforts in the country since 2006. Through the Women’s Empowerment Program (WEP), the Institute has conducted extensive training programs for women activists that have inspired engagement from the grassroots to the Iraqi Parliament.

In a recent interview, a member of NDI’s Iraq staff, Ferdos Majeed, discusses a series of NDI training programs in Erbil that have encouraged women’s political participation. Majeed, who has worked for NDI since 2005, is the first recipient of the Andi Parhamovich Fellowship [3], named for Ms. Parhamovich, an NDI staff member who was killed in Baghdad in 2007 while riding in a convoy that came under attack.  The fellowship is awarded each year to a young woman who is deeply involved in building and consolidating democracy in her own country.

What drew you to work for NDI, and, more specifically, the NDI women’s program?

I originally served as a liaison with Iraqi government officials as part of NDI’s governance program in Iraq, though quickly realized my true passion was working to empower Iraqi women through greater political participation.  I believe that women’s participation in promoting democracy in the world, and especially in Iraq, is crucial if democracy is to take root here.   

Women make up at least half the population in Iraq.  We are professionals (teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers) and workers (cleaners, cooks, secretaries), mothers, daughters, wives and sisters.  In these capacities we bring an alternative understanding to what Iraq needs, including family welfare, health, educational opportunities and other urgent matters that can get passed over in favor of other legislative "priorities."  It is difficult to establish a stable democratic foundation in Iraq without the perspectives and active participation of women in all aspects of civil and political life.

What has been your focus while working with the program?

Empowering women, first and foremost. Since joining the women’s program in 2006, I’ve been responsible for organizing three women's empowerment training programs in Erbil. More than 60 women leaders from civic and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) across Iraq have successfully completed NDI’s training program, and, in turn, have imparted their knowledge and understanding of the political process to hundreds of other women through workshops and conferences organized in their respective regions.

Can you describe the scope of the training program?

Over the course of each eight-month training period, 20 Iraqi women came together for a series of five, one-week training sessions. Each session concentrated on a different facet of political engagement, such as how to conduct an advocacy campaign, build issue-based coalitions, or improve campaign and media skills.

After each session, participants returned home to conduct workshops for their organizations as well as other interested women in their communities using the skills they had learned. One participant gave six workshops with 50 women in attendance at each!

The participants’ “homework” before returning for the next formal session was to research specific issues of concern to women in their region so those issues could be incorporated into the skills training. For example, in a session on handling the media, women were filmed addressing questions of concern to their regions and then received feedback from the trainers on their effectiveness.

How were the women selected to participate?

Each participant was chosen because of her active involvement with a civic organization or NGO supporting women’s initiatives in Iraq. NDI distributed a questionnaire to all women-focused NGOs asking activists to describe how the training programs would further their organizations’ efforts to improve the status of Iraqi women.

Participants were also required to be unaffiliated with any Iraqi political party, hold a university degree, and be a volunteer member of their organization, rather than a member of the board of directors.

Can you share some examples of the ways women have engaged in the Iraqi political process as a result of the training programs?

Two women were inspired to run for the Iraqi provincial council in the Jan. 31 elections because of the skills and confidence they gained from the training program.

One of the participants held a demonstration in support of the Christian community in Ninewa, using the advocacy skills she learned.  Another participant headed a delegation of women that traveled to Latvia to learn more about women in the economy.  And one parliamentarian is leading efforts to pass legislation that will ensure inheritance rights for Yazidi women.

Others have used their skills to advocate with constitutional committees to amend Article 41 of the Iraqi constitution – the personal status law that governs the manner religious courts may settle disputes concerning marriage, divorce, custody of children, inheritance and other family issues. Many women are concerned that it gives them far fewer rights than they had   under the 1959 personal status law that kept all Iraqi people under one unified court.

You’ve said you were personally inspired by Andi Parhamovich. What does this fellowship, and the opportunity it provides to study in the United States, mean to you?

I will never forget her. She came to a very dangerous area to try to make a difference in my country. She was that kind of woman on principle. She did this work for others – something much larger than herself.  With this fellowship I hope to be able to increase my ability to help Iraqi women achieve their potential, using knowledge gained in the U.S. about how American women have made important strides in the political and private sphere in the last few decades.

Pictured above: Ferdos Majeed, the 2008 recipient of the Andi Parhamovich Fellowship.

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Published on Jan. 22, 2009