Jury Out on NGOs

In this episode, a vox-pop from Basra reflected divisions over the emergence of these new NGOs, with some women saying they had made significant strides while others complained that they’d done little to develop skills.



Salwa al-Maliki, in a feature story from Kirkuk, highlighted how hard it was for these groups to maintain their independence when they derive much of their financial support from political and religious parties. In the piece, Fadhil Rasul, head of the Rozh Charity Organisation, said all women NGOs are connected to parties,

while lawyer Bushra Mohammed Zaki insisted that they were not subject to political pressure.



The show interviewed Asma Yusif, a member of the Unified Women League in Baghdad, who noted that under Saddam there was only one women’s organisation and that was linked to the Ba’ath Party. But she also cautioned that the rapid increase in their number has not been associated with a commensurate improvement in their performance.



Omer Mansuri reported from Baghdad on international funding of women NGOs. In the piece, Perwin Ali, head of Kurdistan Women Union, said overseas support was insufficient and mostly aimed at boosting morale.