On eleventh of December, UNICEF’s Iraq Office said that Iraqi women need imperative action to defend and uphold their rights.
Iraq is a society that has traditionally celebrated and empowered women. However, today’s Iraqi women and girls are living in uniquely challenging times. Their rights in the home, school, workplace and political sphere are under threat.
UNICEF delegate for Iraq, Roger Wright said,
‘Women should be equal partners in the future of Iraq, but their rights risk slipping away without positive action to protect them. Now more than ever, equal participation for women is fundamental to Iraq’s recovery’.
The five most critical issues faced by the native women folk, which they have to take into account as given by UNICEF are as follows:
1. Since the bloodshed has left many homes without the sole bread earner, so the women have to face many hardships. Pushed to desperation, many women are hooking on to charity organizations to care for themselves and their children.
2. As the on going threats to girls, attending school is on rise so more and more families are being forced to choose between education and safety for their daughters.
3. The health of the women is also a declining factor that is because of poverty and wretched health care services.
4. Girls and women are living a miserable life because of ‘honor killing’ and ‘convenience marriages’.
5. Women’s representation in Iraq’s government is still excessively low accounting to only 25 %.
However, in the coming years, UNICEF will support the Iraqi government to take three key steps for women:
1.amplifying national resources to improve services for women and children
2. initiating laws to safeguard women’s basic legal and social rights
3. encouraging women’s partaking in local and national decision-making
