Women+in+the+Middle+East

Women in the Middle East ** The ** US **Department of State has an office dedicated to international women's issues.** ** Global respect for women is stated to be, 'a Bush administration foreign policy **** priority.' ** In line with this policy in 2002 the Bush administration set up the **Middle East** ** Partner Initiative (MEPI) ** which uses 'transformational diplomacy' described by Condoleezza Rice as the, 'use of both diplomatic power and foreign assistance to help citizens better their own lives and build their own nations.' Since 2002 these four pillars have received funding of $293 **million from America.** Three of these pillars are familiar focus areas however granting equal weight to women's empowerment is an innovation. 1.  Women and the Law - support for the elimination of arbitrary legal systems 2.    Women and Democracy — increasing participation for women in building democratic societies, focusing on political representation and a strong civil society. 3.  Women's rights - support for local group struggles. 4. Women's Economic Empowerment - access to and opportunity for economic independence. These US foreign policy goals are laudable however critics have questioned their effectiveness in promoting women's rights in the Middle East. Is the US government committed to empowering women in the Middle East or is it merely waging propaganda war with women's rights as the chosen battleground? On International Women's Day, 8th March 2006 Karen Hughes, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, stated, 'throughout Afghanistan and Iraq women are making their voices heard in their new governments. By reviewing the success of the implementation of the MEPI women's pillar in Iraq, it will be possible to draw some tentative conclusions regarding US commitment to its policy goals. The situation regarding women in Iraq was recently reviewed by Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt in their article, 'Women in Iraq: Beyond the Rhetoric'. By looking at the first two foreign policy goals set out in the MEPI women's pillar and reviewing progress made to date in Iraq it should be possible to gauge the depth of the US government's commitment. ** The Iraqi Constitution ratified in October 2005 enshrines women's right to public **** participation but significantly does not grant women equal rights within the family. **  The areas of marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance have traditionally been areas in which all women suffer discrimination. **As** in Lebanon the state has opted to accommodate regional differences in family law due to religious sectarian divisions, Sunni, Shi'a, Kurd etc, rather than prioritize the empowerment of women through the provision of non-discriminatory laws. ** Women's legal rights within the family have been sacrificed to ensure sectarian loyalty to the state. ** The **US** goal of promoting the elimination of arbitrary legal systems appears to have failed in practice. Women in Democracy ** The MEPI advocates increased participation hi the public sphere for women and, in **** particular, political representation. Following the fall of the Ba'ath regime the US **** provided substantial funding to Iraqi women to bring them into the political process quickly. The resulting upsurge in civil society activism amongst women produced a consensus, 'irrespective of the "secular-religious" divide, that women should hold at least 30 percent of all elected offices. ** ** Despite stimulating this upsurge in women's activism via funding the Bush **** administrations representative in Iraq at the time, C.P.A head L. Paul Bremer, refused to support quotas for women. ** Without **US** support Iraqi women achieved an agreement, now enshrined in the constitution, that women representatives will form 25 percent of all elected assemblies. By failing to support calls for equal rights for all women within the arena of family law and refusing to support political representation quotas for women the Bush Administration's genuine commitment to the empowerment of women as a foreign policy initiative is questionable. **The military is a powerful male bastion. It can be argued that the US realist agenda in occupied Iraq leads it to seek stability via negotiations with those in positions of power, the male elite. In this situation only token attention will be paid to the voices of women who will be heard but not listened to or** ** substantively assisted. **  What about women in the Middle East now? Think about all the media interviews of Iraqi women you have seen on the news? Where are these stories coming from? Are these women lives worse then before under Sadaam's regime? Use this information about gender differences to open up an overlooked aspect if you get stuck arguing issued over Iraq and the Middle East! Happy debating!
 * Within the women's pillar the MEPI sets out four areas for development: **
 * Women in Law **