JANUARY 05 NEWSLETTER
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Women's Participation in Elections under Occupation in Iraq and in the Palestinian Territories

Despite the precarious security situations and their traditional conservative societies, women in Palestine and Iraq are struggling to get their voices heard and to increase their participation in the political life of their countries.

In the local elections of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip„? held over two phases on December 23rd 2004 and January 26th 2005, respectively „? women turned out in significant numbers, both as candidates and as voters. The proportion of female voters was almost equal to that of their male counterpart (49%). Women candidates represented 15.7% of the total in the West Bank and 16.4% in the Gaza Strip. Women won 50 seats in the local councils of the West Bank, representing 16.7% of the total. In the Gaza Strip, women won 20 seats which is equivalent to 17% of the total. These results are impressive given that they were the first Palistinian municipal elections to be held since 1976. It is also to be noted that the Palestinian Legislative Council had refused to grant women the promised 20% quota in local councils. The PLC did however agree to a quota system which guarantees women at least two seats in each municipality. As for the January 9th 2005 Palestinian presidential elections, none of the seven candidates were female. Nonetheless, women were very active in the Central Electoral Committee both as organizers and as supervisors of the voting process. The proportion of female voters in this election is estimated by some observers to be close to that of their male counterparts, although there are no official statistics to substantiat this claim.

The general environment of instability and violence in Iraq as well as the insurgency's efforts to undermine the January 30th Iraqi National Assembly elections, made it almost impossible for candidates to run open public campaigns. However, the risks women faced were even more severe in view of several clerics' fatwas[1] condemning women who ran for public office. As a result, one female candidate was assassinated, another was kidnapped and held for ransom, and two others lost their sons in punishment for their decisions to stand in the elections. Despite this unsafe climate, 25% of the candidates were women as stipulated by the interim Iraqi electoral law. All parties running in the elections were required to include this female quota of their slates, thereby ensuring that women are adequately representated in the National Assembly responsible for drafting the Iraqi permanent constitution and selecting the nation's president. This stipulation however will not necessarily translate into an improvement in women's rights since elected women will be obliged to maintain the party line which could very well be a traditional consevative one. Although no official numbers exist indicating the percentage of women voters, unofficial estimates place the number at 45%.

The high level of female participation in the Iraqi and Palestinian elections presents a positive development in the Arab world. However, women's access to polling stations and public office alone is not sufficient by itself to alter the prevelant bias against women in predominantly Islamic societies.To effect real positive change in the lot of Arab women improvements need to be part of a comprehensive program promoting women's political, social and economic rights to the level called for in international conventions.

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[1] Religious prosecution