The Iraqi Women Leadership Program

The Women Leadership Program trained and supported 150 pro-democracy women activists from all over Iraq through September 2005, in order to help them assume influential roles in the new Iraq and undertake activities to promote democracy on local and national levels. Over 1,000 women applied to the program. The program's participants were women who expressed an interest in taking leadership roles and have displayed the requisite qualities, skills and intellectual beliefs to become leaders and advocates for women's rights and democracy in the new, free Iraq.
The Women Leaders Program consisted of:

• A five day conference on the "Principles and Practice of Democracy" where the participants delved into the concepts of democracy and explored how they apply to Iraq.
• Four regional meetings in rotating cities around Iraq. These meetings provided a forum for the participants to exchange information and coordinate their activities.
• Access to organizations and experts abroad that helped the participants in their activities.
• A dedicated, secure website where participants can communicate with each other and find information resources on democracy.

Expert Advisory Panel
A number of experts from different parts of the world were available to help the participants in the Women's Leadership Program. These experts gave the program participants advice on such issues as which electoral systems would benefit women; how Iraqi women should lobby to be nominated in significant numbers in party lists; and how to secure women's rights and basic individual freedoms in the permanent constitution of Iraq. The IWEI program coordinator will help the participants communicate with the advisory panel via surveys and e-mail.

Committees

Each participant in the Women's Leadership Program was a member of one of the committees listed below. However, women from different parts of Iraq worked together in their provinces to develop democracy. Each committee was supported by experts in Iraq and abroad who are available to advise the members in person, via e-mail and through the IWEI website.

• Constitutional Review
• Media
• Democracy Education
• Women's Legal Issues 

Constitutional Review
The members of this committee committed to do the following tasks:
•  Research constitutions from other countries and learn what makes a constitution effective and what key provisions are needed to protect democracy and women's rights.
•  Learn about how other countries have successfully reconciled democracy and religion.
•  Evaluate the Constitution that will be proposed for the referendum in June.
•  Educate the other women in the program about the Constitution.
•  Implement campaigns that aim to educate the general public about the upcoming Iraqi Constitutional writing process.

Media
The members of this committee committed to do the following tasks:
•  Appear in the media to advocate for democracy and women's rights.
•  Learn about how to use the media to focus on issues of concern in the community and influence government officials.
•  Use the media to educate people about the Constitution before the referendum.  

Democracy Education
The members of this committee committed to do the following tasks:
•  Propose ideas and plans for teaching people in their community about democracy.
•  Work to introduce democratic values into children's education.

Women's Legal Issues
The members of this committee committed to do the following tasks:
•  Research and learn about laws that can hurt or help women's rights.
•  Investigate how women in other Muslim-majority countries have secured their rights using strategies that are rooted in religious teachings.
•  Educate the other women in the program.