Talabani gives his support for women’s demands

"Baghdad (VOI) By Adel Fakher – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani gave his support on Thursday for a number of demands made by a group of Iraqi women who met him today.

“The demands of the women delegation are centered on abiding by the relevant items in the state administration law and protecting the percentage of political representation of women,” Talabani told a news conference in Baghdad after meeting the delegation.

Talabani said that the demands stressed that “Iraqi constitution should preserve all rights of women and that none of its items should contravene with any text that forbids violence against women.”
Safeya el-Sohale, Iraqi Ambassador to Egypt, thanked Talabani during the press conference for his support of women’s demands.

“Meeting the President today crowned our meetings with the National Assembly Speaker who expressed his willingness to support our demands and with representatives of the Iraqi list, Kurdistan Union list and Assyrian Democratic movement plus independent figures from the Unified Iraqi Union,” Sohale said.

Pascal Warda, delegation member, said that Iraqi women struggle for their rights started more than half a century ago “and they are determined to establish the principles of democracy and equality with men.”
President Talabani is one of the staunch supporters of women among the official and political figures, an Iraqi delegate said.

About 400 Iraqi women representing the feminist movement in Iraq organized a sit-in in Baghdad on Tuesdayt to send a message to leaders of political blocks and to the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan demanding that the new constitution does not marginalize women’s role and that it entrenches their rights."
The Kurdistani

What a contrast between this story and the last.