October 7, 2004

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  IRAQ: Administration Chooses Anti-Feminist Group to Train Iraqi Women by Jim Lobe, OneWorld US October 5th, 2004

  The State Department has awarded an explicitly anti-feminist U.S. group part of a US$10 million grant to train Iraqi women in political participation and democracy. The group, the Washington-based Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), will help implement the administration’s “Iraqi Women’s Democracy Initiative.” The IWF was founded in 1991 by a number of prominent right-wing Republican women to act as a counterpoint to what they called the “radical feminism” of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Among the founders were Lynne Cheney, the spouse of Vice President Dick Cheney; Labor Secretary Elaine Chao; Kate O’Beirne, Washington editor of the right-wing “National Review” and a former senior vice president at the Heritage Foundation; and Midge Decter, one of the founders of neo-conservatism along with her spouse, former “Commentary” editor, Norman Podhoretz. The IWF, which, according to its mission statement was “established to combat the women-as-victim, pro-big-government ideology of radical feminism,” has taken a number of controversial positions. It has strongly opposed the UN Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in part on the grounds that it would permit mandate governments to enforce laws guaranteeing equal pay for equal work. It has also objected to CEDAW’s requirements that governments guarantee “maternity leave with pay” and child care facilities as well as its suggestions for minimum quotas to ensure that women are represented at all levels in governments. The IWF has also opposed affirmative action and federal programs designed to prevent sexual discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal government funding. The group opposed the Violence Against Women Act. IWF staff consists primarily of former Republican activists with extensive government and lobbying experience but little or no experience in democracy promotion, international affairs, or the Middle East. Rather than recruit Iraqui women to run for office, IWF Senior Fellow Michelle Bernard said, “we’re just looking for people who want to participate at the community level, people who are interested in education (or) people who might want to be policy makers in the equivalent of a think tank here.”

  
  

   

  • 6:07 pm
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