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Iraqi women flee Mosul. Many internal refugees have been left
without government aid (Reuters)
Jonathan Steele-Wednesday 22 March 2017
"We've been here over two and a half years, since Daesh [Islamic
State] occupied Fallujah," said Fawzia Ferhan Hussein, a widowed
grandmother, wearing a black hijab.
One of my sons went to check on our house and found it in ruins...
there's nothing to go back to.
- Fawzia Ferhan Hussein
Her six married children live near her in the concrete shell of the
building which they now call home. They lived for some months
under IS control but managed to escape in small boats along the
Euphrates, followed by a walk across the desert at night.
They have run pipes from the official water mains to install taps
on each staircase or in individual families' kitchens. A network of
wires bring them electricity from the grid.
"When we left Fallujah, we first rented a house until our money
ran out. Then we came here," says Hussein.
"One of my sons went back a month ago to check on our house
and found it in ruins, partly burnt and partly blown up. So there's
nothing to go back to."
"This created huge competition between the three men and one
woman who would get into parliament if the list was
successful," Ibrahim said.
The issue came to a head in the 2014 election. According to the
result sheets which are posted on the wall at every polling station
as soon as the counting is complete, she came top of her party's
list with 4,100 votes, the biggest score for a Sunni woman in
Baghdad, she said.
A colleague told me: 'Nada, you're a fool. You've been an MP for
eight years and you've not made money'.
- Nada Ibrahim, former MP
The results are taken down within 24 hours and Ibrahim was told
by colleagues that she would have to pay a bribe of hundreds of
thousands of dollars to the Independent Election Commission to
have her victory confirmed.
They also advised her that otherwise her party leader would be
declared to have won most votes and would take the only seat
the list was entitled to. Too few voters had chosen the list for it to
qualify for more that one seat in the new parliament.
"I was outraged," Ibrahim told MEE. "When I said I didn't have that
kind of money and would not pay anyway, a colleague told me:
'Nada, you're a fool. You've been an MP for eight years and you've
not made money'."
Ibrahim had become unpopular with many male MPs, she said,
"because I was seen as a threat when they found a woman who
was empowered and made speeches".
Nada Ibrahim with refugee families in Bahgdad (MEE/Jonathan
Steele)
"I also had contacts with people and was active outside the Green
Zone," she said, a reference to the heavily guarded government
district housing parliament, embassies and private residences of
MPs and ministers. It is almost impossible for ordinary citizens to
get in.
Ibrahim no longer practises medicine. Instead, she devotes
herself to her NGO for women.
It focuses on domestic abuse and violence against women but
also runs basic employment courses for young refugees, men as
well as women, training them in mobile phone maintenance and
electrical mechanics.
Although she does not blame them, she is worried by the large
number of young Iraqis who have left the country, including
women, since Germany opened its door to refugees.
"There have been many positive changes since Saddam fell.
There is freedom of speech, of newspapers and TV, of travel; the
freedom to form political parties and to vote for them," she told
MEE.
"But there are negatives. Violence is very severe. Government
collapsed in large parts of the country when Daesh came. There's
sectarianism throughout the political discourse, and corruption is
massive."
Ibrahim maintains her political contacts and the temptation to go
back into the parliamentary arena is strong. With 15 friends she
recently formed a new party, called the Party of National Power
and Unity.
In spite of its name, it is largely Sunni. The cancer of sectarianism
implanted by the US-led invasion of 2003 is hard to eradicate, she
admits.
Posted by Thavam