Womens Political Participation in Iraq Research Proposal

Womens Political Participation in Iraq - Research Proposal Example In this vein my dissertation explores whether these expectations have been achieved five years down the lane since the Iraq war. My initial research in the field of investigation of 'women and political participation' as I sifted through academic and political commentaries pertaining to the issue of women and empowerment reveals that there is a recurring trend of the problems that women face throughout the globe. It is also possible to see that the women's participation in the democratic process in Iraq can be divided into historical phases. Whereas the decade of the sixties witnessed a growth in the number of more politically aware women in the country's economic, political and civil spheres of the society particularly through the public/government sector. The advent of the Bathist party in the early seventies also saw the "Education for all" initiative which made women's liberation a supreme tenet of its agenda based upon the prevalent socialist ideology .This is did little for the private sphere as the Muslim Shariah laws were discriminatory against women. Things did not look good for the development of the "Women's liberation" in the mid eighties which witnessed an Iraq tumultuously struggling in the Iraq-Iran conflict and the birth of an increasingly secularist state which targeting the clerical fundamentalist minority of the country's political arena. The subsequent suppression of this fundamentalist element caused social conservatism so where as the women were active economically but politically their position weakened and this caused the decade to witness an increased breach of women's rights and liberties. The nineties saw a wave of religious fundamentalism backed by the public sector and there was an increase in Burqa and Hij ab clad women and there were less women in the work force and colleges. The decaying economy and the decreased salaries were equally pivotal in discouraging women's work and education. It is often said that the condition of women's liberation and empowerment was worse under Saddam's regime than compared to Afghan women under the Taliban and it is often argued that the political and economic status of women was greatly brutalized under Saddam.At the end of the war it is estimated that only 25% of Iraqi women are literate and nearly 20% of the women are employed. (UNESCO estimates). Literature Review Proposed Division of Chapters in the literature review It is intended that this literature review will consist of 4 chapters Chapter 1, Women Political Participation Global facts and figures; this will include the number of seats that