Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Baroness D'Souza (Crossbench). It was answered on Thursday, 6 July 2006.

Iraq: Treatment of Women

Question: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his Answer. It seems that women are suffering disproportionately from violence in Iraq: they fear to go to the market without male protection, there is strong pressure for women—even Christian women—to wear veils and domestic violence appears to remain unaddressed. It would appear that prisons are the only place for women to go, but recent reports of repeated abuse and rape by guards from the Al Kazima prison in Baghdad, where 200 women are incarcerated, does not give cause for comfort. Furthermore, the recent appointment of women MPs by the Government in Iraq is not necessarily representative of the minorities in that country. Does the Minister agree that it would be of great humanitarian value to set up women’s refuges? Can he also say whether any of the considerable amount of money allocated for reconstruction in Iraq has been spent on political training for women MPs so that they can be more effective in their campaigns against violence?

Answer: My Lords, first, because there is no statistical track through the Saddam period, it is very hard to disentangle whether things are very much worse, although I am inclined to the view that that is probably the case. We think that the idea of refuges is a strong one and I know that a delegation on this recently went to Wales to look at experience there. Secondly, we are working very hard, including with women MPs, to develop institutionally the rights of women. We want to make sure that there is capacity building in the human rights areas affecting women and the development of civil society, which is often a great bastion of protection and development for women, and also capacity building within civil society organisations. A good deal of the investment and effort is going into the three prongs of that approach.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 684 c355
Session: 2005-06
Oral question type: 1st Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Subjects: Development aid Women Human rights Iraq Violence Refuges Women's rights
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk