Women in Iraq did not want to see this right nor their other long held civil rights trampled on by a reversion to the Islamic code.
Al-Suwaij noted, “Meanwhile, both in Iraq and in Kuwait women are getting more and more involved in elections.”
Women were first allowed to vote in Kuwait as of 2006, but in Iraq they have been active for decades.
AND, THIS IS DEMOCRACY?!
“The need to bridge the gap between Islamic and Western views is needed everywhere. Therefore, I am happy to see a place like the AWARE CENTER flourish in Kuwait.” Al-Suwaij continued, “The American Islamic Congress focuses on this—as well as teaching Westerners about Islam and Islamic issues. In addition, the AIC focuses not only on rights but negative issues, such as ‘honor killings’ and female genital mutilation. [We cannot] leave these issues in the background.”
One way the AIC in the Washington, D.C. area does this is through its monthly invitations to the various U.S. congressmen to meet with and learn from a variety of Islamic speakers.
“However, clashes continue among East and West. This is why we are inviting women to more-and-more offer their own voices and narratives in terms of presentations, speaking and writing.” Later, Al-Suwaij noted, “We hold annual contests, whereby we cull the world for young Islamic female writers to tell their story and the story of [empowering] women and rights groups in their communities. We take 50 of these articles and publish them in an annual document. Then we invite the writers for training and mentoring.”
As well, both the AIC and Zainab Al-Suwaij’s other organizational activities in Iraq and elsewhere focus on helping Westerners to move past their stereotypes of Islam and their own reality. The speaker told the story of how, when women she worked with in Iraq learned that the highest representation that women in the USA have ever held in the Senate and House has been at most 10%, they looked at each other in amazement and asked, “And, this is Democracy???”
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