She's making a difference in
Iraq By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - We have been watching the
makers and shakers of Iraqi politics for the past
five years, and the turbaned clerics and the angry
bearded politicians still speak nothing but hatred
against each other.
Yet there are refined
and hard-working civil society figures who are
slaving to bring about a better Iraq, defying all
the ugliness, death and anguish brought about by
militiamen, al-Qaeda, Shi'ite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and the
Americans. They are the Ghandis of modern Iraq and
recognition from the international community is
long overdue. One person who
has
been particularly active is former cabinet
minister and now member of Parliament Maysoun
al-Damluji.
A strong-minded woman with
charm and character, Maysoun al-Damluji was born
into a middle-class Baghdad family in 1962.
Growing up under the influence of doctors and
old-school politicians, her great uncle Abdullah
Bey al-Damluji was the first foreign minister of
Saudi Arabia under the kingdom's founder, King
Abdul-Aziz. He returned to Iraq to take up the
same post under King Faysal I. English-speaking,
tuxedo-wearing, refined and seasoned politicians,
they injected the family with strong moral values,
urging them to become active, law-abiding
citizens, respectful of women, opinions of others,
and democracy.
Maysoun's parents were both
distinguished professors and her father was dean
of the Faculty of Medicine at Baghdad University.
Like many intellectuals with independent views,
they were harassed by Saddam Hussein in the late
1970s. They were given an ultimatum: either join
the Ba'ath Party or else suffer the consequences.
They chose to "suffer the consequences" and moved
to London in 1981, with 20-year-old Maysoun. She
studied at the Architectural Association and began
her own practice in 1985.
During her
London years, she was active with the large Iraqi
community, staging rallies, promoting Iraqi art
and founding the Iraqi Artists' Association and
the Kufa Gallery. By the 1990s, after Saddam
invaded Kuwait, she became a political activist as
well, calling for the downfall of his Baghdad
government.
Maysoun returned to Iraq in
2003, shortly after the US invasion and before an
audience of 400 women she founded the Iraqi
Independent Women's Group (IIWG), serving as its
first president and editor-in-chief of its
periodical, Noon. The IIWG , she says, "Has been
learning by trial and error. We had no model to
follow, but have learnt from our mistakes." She
added, "Then, as now, the issue these women were
most concerned about was security. There is an
unalleviated concern about the future, especially
for their families and children, and about
individual rights, especially the right to dress
as you wish, without the hijab."
Maysoun then became deputy minister of
culture in the interim government of 2003 and it
was renewed under both prime ministers Iyad Allawi
and Ibrahim al-Jaafari in 2003-2006. She
concentrated on saving what could be saved of
Iraq's antiquities and works of art, mainly after
Baghdad Museum was looted in the immediate
aftermath of the US invasion. Loud, convincing,
unveiled and fluent with languages, she naturally
irritated the clerics who were running Baghdad.
Undaunted, she continued with her
"cultural war", although two colleagues, Akila
al-Hashimi, a member of the Iraqi Governing
Council (killed in August 2003), and Amel
Mamalchi, an advisor at the Ministry of
Municipalities and Public Works, were killed by
insurgents for the public roles they played
(November 2004).
In 2005, when the
Americans and Poles returned the ancient city of
Babylon to Iraqi authorities, they gave the keys
of the archeological treasure to Maysoun. Since
March 2006, she has become more involved in
day-to-day politics, serving as a deputy for Mosul
in the Iraqi Parliament on the list of ex-prime
minister Allawi.
Last week, Maysoun held a
grand conference in Baghdad, objecting to the
rising death toll of Iraqi women. She filed a
request to the Ministry of Interior, demanding the
right to stage a demonstration upholding the
rights granted to women by the Iraqi constitution.
In recent months, the number of women killed in
Basra, for example, has reached 100. The number is
lower (50) in Diyali but at a high 520 in Kirkuk.
More often than not, she explained, these crimes
are left unpunished.
Maysoun has been
trying to tell the world: wake up. You have been
over-concentrating on federalism, disarming
militias and arming the Awakening Councils. You
have debated Article 140 of the constitution
(regarding Kirkuk becoming a part of the Kurdish
autonomous zone) but have completely ignored
Articles 14, 19, 39. Democracy and justice starts
with these "forgotten articles". Article 14
prohibits segregation of women while Article 19
guarantees personal privacy and Article 39 says,
"People are free to choose their personal status
according to their own religion, sect, belief and
choice, and that this will be organized by law."
When asked why these articles were not
being implemented, she replied: "Because of the
weakness in government", noting that the reasons
behind all these crimes are "unveiling, refusing
to adhere to the Islamic dress code, short skirts,
and driving cars". Maysoun added, "Nobody in Iraq
feels safe today. But [the situation] has not
scared women off."
"Even in the worst
circumstances, they still show up for meetings,"
she said. "We've had car bombs go off a few
hundred yards away more than once. It becomes very
humbling when around the corner fighting breaks
out, or a bomb goes off, and you see these women
picking their way through broken glass and the
scattered limbs of the victims. They insist on
carrying on. This determination places you under
an obligation. I sincerely believe, from my
experience, that women in general are far braver
than men. I cannot explain it. Others might call
them reckless. But they are very brave."
Sami Moubayed is a Syrian
political analyst.
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