PRESS CONFERENCE

IRAQ
THE UNHEARD VOICES OF IRAQI WOMEN

We are a group of independent Iraqi women from various parts of Iraq (South, Center and Iraqi Kurdistan). We would be honored by your participation at our Press Conference at:

NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
529, 14 TH STREET, NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20045

Friday OCT. 4th, 2002
FROM 9:30-11:00 a.m.

We, women of Iraq have been for the last three decades under an extraordinary brutal regime. The panelists have lost beloved ones in wars launched by Saddam’s regime and 34 years of killing of more than one million Iraqis in internal and external aggressive and inhuman policies of the rulers of Baghdad.

Your presence will be an occasion to hear testimonies about the experiences of millions of suffering Iraqi women in the hands of one of the world’s most brutal dictators.

The voices of Iraqis are seldom heard and the voices of Iraqi women are completely absent in the international media and beyond. We appeal through you to the international community that we Iraqi women are united in our voices asking for justice, freedom and democracy for our people and country. We need your help in bringing out our messages and make the voices of the many victims of the Iraqi regime heard.

The international community and women organizations and defenders of women rights expressed a wonderful and tangible solidarity with our suffering sisters in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and elsewhere. We call upon everyone to help us to gain our freedom and country. Also, the long during suffering of the Iraqi women deserves to come to an end. The speakers are:

Safia Taleb Al Souhail, Advocacy Director for Middle East and Islamic World at International Alliance for Justice, Publisher of the independent newspaper Al Manar Al Arabi and daughter of Sheikh Taleb Al Souhail the prominent Iraqi personality and chief of Bani Tamim Tribe who was assassinated by the Iraqi regime in Beirut in 1994;

Hetau Ibrahim Ahmad, She is a prominent Kurdish activist, who has engaged in politics at a very young age. Her father Ibrahim Ahmed was a famous writer, poet and the General Secretary of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. She has lived most her life as internally displaces and as a refugee fleeing from one place to another.

Zakia Ismail Hakki, Lawyer and the first woman Judge in Iraq. She advocated for minorities and women human rights. She has defended individual political detainees before military courts. She was President of Kurdish Women Federation between 1958-1975.

Dr Katrine Michael, She is an Iraqi Chaldean and a Christian. She joined the Kurdish resistance forces called Peshmerga in 1982 .She was victim of chemical weapons in 1988. She fled to Turkey with thousand of Kurdish families as a result of chemical bombardments where she stayed for one year at a refugee camp. She arrived to United States in 1997.

Nizal Muhi Al Sheikh Shalal Aljuburi, Diploma in Trade / Business Management from Al Kreat Al Jubur Trib. Her brother disappeared in 1980 and three of her female cousins were executed by the Iraqi government.

Sabria Mahdi Naama, She was married to Abbas Kareem Naama a military General in the Iraqi army then and a Pharmacit. She joined the 1991 Intafada in southern Iraq and had to escape with her five kids from village to village. She is now active in the Iraqi community in California.

Peyman Halmat, She was a teatcher and a long-time Kurdish activist. She has lost several members of her family.

Contact persons:

Safia Taleb Al Souhail: SofiaAmin@aol.com
Zakia Ismail Hakki: salar4@juno.com – Tel: +1-703-658 3373 Fax: +1-703-658 1946
Katrine Michael:Tel: MICHEALKATRIN@HOTMAIL.COM or Tel: +1-202-549 4472