quote:
Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, said the poor security situation prevented women from playing a bigger role in rebuilding Iraq."For many women, they do not want to take the risk. They have seen what happened to Akila al-Hashemi," Heyzer said. Hashemi, one of three women on the Iraqi Governing Council, was critically wounded in an attack in Baghdad last Saturday.
"We need to address this culture of fear and the culture of terrorism as until you do that you are not going to have people (women) participating,"
"Even if they want to engage they feel they can't at the moment," she said.
In many areas, Iraqi women were too afraid to take their children to school for fear of them being attacked and some were being forced by male relatives to wear veils as a means of protection.
Heyzer said there was a contest between moderates and extremists to win over women in Iraq and the international community needed to do more to support women, who were among the most educated in the Middle East.
Before the bombing of the U.N.'s headquarters in Baghdad last month, Heyzer said the United Nations had mobilized about 450 women for a national symposium. But after the bombing, she said this meeting was canceled and those women were now too frightened to become openly involved in such a process.
"Now they want to be involved under the radar screen and to have local consultations. When the timing is right we will bring them all back together again."
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posted 24 September 2003 07:56 AM
