The head of the empowerment and capacity building research department, Prof. Dr. Asmaa Jamil Rashid at the Center for Women’s Studies, has recently participated in an expanded meeting sponsored by the Department of Women’s Empowerment in the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers in cooperation with UN Women at the Hall of the Hospitality Palace in Baghdad to discuss the paragraphs of the National Strategy for Iraqi Women for the years (2023-2030), especially with regard to the political empowerment of women.
This participation reflected the vision of the center as an official academic body specialized in women’s affairs to support the political empowerment of women with a focus on two main issues directly related to supporting and enhancing women’s participation in public affairs, the first issue is about caring about women voters, how they vote, who gives their vote, and what are the determinants of their voting behavior, and not limiting this attention to women candidates, as women form a large voting bloc that can change the results of any elections in favor of improving their status. The second issue that was exchanged is related to modifying trends and attitudes towards women’s leadership in Iraqi society, which is one of the most important determinants and obstacles to women’s political participation in the beginning from the decision to run for office to the voting process, which explains that women receive the lowest percentage of votes as well as the discrimination and hostile behavior that women face when they assume leadership roles.