Press Conference

Providing Work for Women is an Urgent Need

 

“Women’s Rights At Work” Center organized a press conference under the slogan “Providing Work for Women is an Urgent Need” in the Fwcui Meeting Hall on Saturday 2-9-2006.

Women seeking jobs attended the meeting, in addition to worker activists and unionionists.

Eman Khattab, Wraw activist, pointed out the necessity of having the women raise their voices high to demand their right to work. She addressed the women to the important of organizing their ranks in one pressure group to get their demands from the authorities.

The activist, Azhar Baigk Al Gali, elaborated into the sufferings of all Iraqi families when there is only one income, in times when even two incomes are not enough. She criticized the authorities which spend the unlimited resources of oil in all ways other than benefiting the Iraqi citizen, not caring for the destiny of Iraqi women who go through all kinds of sufferings to feed their children.

The unionist Amira AL-Ikaby focused more upon the options of women as for the existing social programs and the extremely low income unemployed widows get from the government, blaming the government for the millions of jobless women.

Yanar Mohammed, the president of Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq supported women’s right to work. She said that in the deprived areas the OWFI visits, 90% women are unemployed. She stressed the importance of outreach to housewives who live in isolation from the society and from other unemployed women, and therefore in need of help in raising their awareness to their rights to work and income, and also to be organized into one unified force to pressure the authorities for their rights.

Some discussion was held about the role of men in marginalizing women and not encouraging them to work. The difference of opinions clarified the variety of activists’ tendencies.

Finally, Eman Khattab assured that the Wraw Center activists will keep on pursuing getting work for the long list of unemployed women that the center has collected from the neighbouring area, whether they are workers or college graduates. They will contact many ministries and officials until they begin to hear some answers.

 

Al Mousawat (Equality) Foundation

3-Sep-06

wat (Equality) Foundation

3-Sep-06