[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 26, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H221-H222]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  MEETING WITH IRAQI WOMEN CANDIDATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month I traveled with the 
Iraqi Women's Caucus members, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger), 
the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Tauscher) and the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) to meet with Iraqi women to discuss election 
procedures.
  We held the meeting in Amman, Jordan. These were women who were 
candidates for the January 30, 2005, elections in Iraq. And it seems 
kind of strange that we would be training them in election procedures, 
how to campaign, when certainly that is a very different place, and the 
elections are being held in a war zone, and it is very difficult for 
candidates to get their name out, to even have their picture out and so 
that they are on lists which provides for the different groups. The 
women were from all different parties that are involved in the 
election. There are over 100 parties.
  We had 20 of these women that came to discuss the elections. But we 
were so amazed and so impressed with the caliber of women. They are 
educated, articulate, well spoken, and at least five of them have 
Ph.Ds. But they are not only running for election, where we talk about 
how you have to speak against opponents, and you might say that you are 
going to really kill each other; they are actually putting their life 
on the line. So many of them have been intimidated. They have been 
threatened. One of the women has lost her 17-year old son along with 
her guard. Last week there was an assassination attempt on her again 
with four insurgents dressed as Iraqi policemen. Fortunately, they did 
not succeed, and she is still running.
  One woman had been kidnapped and held for ransom and was finally 
released. Another woman lost her son. Another woman had five family 
members who have been killed just recently. And yet they are willing. 
Because they believe so much in democracy, they are willing to put 
their names on a list to be elected.
  And fortunately for the women of Iraq, this is a national constituent 
type of election, and so it is not what we think of as having districts 
or provinces. But there is a list of the different parties, so people 
will have one

[[Page H222]]

vote for the list, and then the number of people that are elected will 
receive--will be included in the government that is being elected and 
will have the opportunity to write the Constitution. But it was decided 
by the transitional government that women would be included, and that 
25 percent of those who are elected will be women. And the way that 
that was done is that every third name on the list is a woman.
  So we had the opportunity to meet for several days with these women, 
and the longer we met, the more engaged everybody became. You could 
have really very frank discussions. So many times when we go over 
there, it is just for a meeting of very short time. You never really 
got to know the women.
  There have also been women that have come over here to work with us. 
But despite the differences in the women, they were Shiites, Sunnis, 
Kurds, independents and Christians, that they had not really discussed 
political issues with each other, and what we were able to do was to be 
able to facilitate and help them develop the tools and the skills to be 
able to work together and realize that politics really is the art of 
compromise. Some of them were very rigid in what they believe should be 
done, but they were able to see that you need to discuss, and it is 
very important to have a majority party, but also to have a minority 
party.

                              {time}  1330

  Even the Sunni women that were there, who came in wanting to postpone 
the elections because their areas are obviously unsafe, they still want 
to participate. What all of the women told us was that they need to 
have everyone participate, all the different groups. Many of them, even 
within the different groups, are divided into other groups.
  But we were really able to discuss this with them, and I think they 
went away with a positive reinforcement of how to deal with that. What 
we came away with was such a feeling of how important it is, how they 
view the democracy that we have and the freedoms that we have and how 
they really want to have the same type of thing.
  Now, these elections are really only the first step in them reaching 
democracy, and they will be able to write their constitution and form 
an interim government. The constitution will have to be written by 
August 15, which is a very short time. The interim government will take 
effect, and then they will have a slate for eventual election of the 
permanent officers who will govern in December of 2005. But they are on 
their way.
  One thing that they said to us is, The U.S., we think of them as 
occupiers, but please do not leave us until the job is done. We need 
you there. We really need to have a democracy. And they are willing to 
give their life for it.
  Mr. Speaker, I congratulate them and wish them well on their 
election.

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