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© AFP Ali al-Saadi

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Feyruz Hatam's face is itself an indication of the change in Iraqi society's view of women that has become apparent in the runup to the country's election on Sunday: it is not covered.

"The mentality of Iraqi voters has changed. I'm happy because my photo conveys the message that times have changed," says Hatam, whose brown trouser suit makes her stand out from fellow Iraqi National Alliance candidates.

Her female colleagues at a meeting of the conservative Shiite grouping at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel are mostly wearing abayas, head-to-toe flowing black dresses, and the men are turbanned, indicating they are clerics.

Hatam and women like her around the country, whose faces are uncovered in all forms of media from election posters to televised debates, have been one of the surprises of the campaign ahead of Iraq's second parliamentary election since Saddam Hussein was ousted by the 2003 US-led invasion.

"I think I am an asset to my colleagues, because I think young men and women will vote for us because of my presence," says the 44-year-old, who runs an Iraqi television channel and leads the small Fayli Kurd Party.

Faylis are Shiite Kurds who live in the country's east. Thousands of them were expelled from their homes by Saddam Hussein in 1979.

"By showing my uncovered head, I show voters that our list is not only made up of Islamists."

In the chaos that followed the 2003 invasion, religious militias severely clamped down on women's rights and forced them to cover their heads or face the threat of violence.

Hatam herself returned to Iraq in 2004, after having left for Iran aged 13, and is now among 1,801 female candidates standing for parliament.

Iraq's constitution stipulates that a quarter of a party's candidates, and eventual MPs, must be women. As a result, no fewer than 82 women will be elected to parliament in the March 7 poll.

Most female candidates still wear veils or headscarves, but a brave minority like Hatam and Safiya al-Souhail, a candidate with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law Alliance, are making their point with uncovered heads.

"In 2005, the names and certainly the photos of the candidates did not appear on election posters because the security situation was dire," says Souhail.

© AFP/File Ali al-Saadi

"We could have been targets for Al-Qaeda, who had vowed to stop the elections."

For Souhail, who was elected to parliament in 2005 as part of ex-prime minister Iyad Allawi's bloc, "just because a woman is not veiled, it does not mean she is disrespecting religious tradition."

"Our constitution is clear -- it stipulates that our country respects Islam but is not an Islamic state."

Souhail says she wants to "erase the years when the militias and outlaws forced women to cover their heads and forbade men from wearing jeans."

Female candidates' uncovered faces have also had unintended consequences: in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, a Turkman candidate's photograph has led to several traffic accidents at a major intersection.

"Drivers turn their heads to look at Jala Naftaji and this has caused collisions at intersections, bridges and checkpoints," according to a police officer who declined to be identified.

Naftaji, 54, is running on Allawi's Iraqiya list.

"I have heard (about the traffic accidents) -- I think it is down to this new democratic experience known as Iraq," she says.

Sabah Abdul Rasul al-Tamimi, a 36-year-old economics professor, has gone one step further -- not only does she appear unveiled in photographs, she publishes her phone number on cards she hands to voters.

"I think it is better to give my phone number on a card than printing millions of dollars worth of posters," says the mother-of-three, a candidate on Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani's Iraqi Unity Alliance.

"That way, voters can call me and ask me about my programme."

-Sabah Abdul Rasul (f), National Iraqi Alliance candidate
-Safiya al-Suhayil (f), Islamic Dawa Party

SCRIPT:

There aren't many women at your average election meeting in Baghdad.

And most of those who turn up do so under a full hijab.

But at a stadium out of town, one candidate is braving local more and presenting herself very differently.

Thirty-six, a mother of three, and with an infectious energy, Sabah Abdul Rasul says the prevalence of the veil in Iraq is actually a relatively recent phenomenon.

SOUNDBITE, Sabah Abdul Rasul, National Iraqi Alliance candidate (Arabic, 14 sec):
"We've had a foreign culture imposed on Iraq in 2005, 2006 and even in 2007. The result is that women become victims of violence and are forced to put on the veil."

In the post-Saddam period, religious militia had forced women to cover up under threat of being beaten.

During the last elections in 2005, female candidates didn't even dare put their photos on election posters.

But Iraq's parliament is taking increasing notice of female voices.

And for many politicians, Iraq is not an Islamic republic and there is no compulsion to hide behind the veil.

SOUNDBITE, Safiya al-Suhayil, Islamic Dawa Party (Arabic, 17 sec):
"The next parliament needs to be better than the last in fighting for women's rights. So do institutions and NGOs, because this is an urgent issue, especially for widows."

Iraq certainly has plenty of those.

And with a quarter of the 325 seats in Iraq's parliament reserved for women, there's now a real chance that they could feel better represented here than they have for some time.

SHOTLIST
BAGHDAD, 1 Mar 2010
SOURCE: AFPTV, ACCESS ALL

-GVs Baghdad election meeting
-GVs Baghdad stadium holding Nation Iraqi Alliance rally for Jawad Bolani, minister for the interior (an independent candidate within the coalition)
-GVs Sabah Abdul Rasul
-SOUNDBITE
-GVs election posters in streets of Baghdad
-GVs al-Suhayil in office
-SOUNDBITE
-GVs election rally
-GVs election posters

-Sabah Abdul Rasul (f), National Iraqi Alliance candidate
-Safiya al-Suhayil (f), Islamic Dawa Party

SCRIPT:

There aren't many women at your average election meeting in Baghdad.

And most of those who turn up do so under a full hijab.

But at a stadium out of town, one candidate is braving local more and presenting herself very differently.

Thirty-six, a mother of three, and with an infectious energy, Sabah Abdul Rasul says the prevalence of the veil in Iraq is actually a relatively recent phenomenon.

SOUNDBITE, Sabah Abdul Rasul, National Iraqi Alliance candidate (Arabic, 14 sec):
"We've had a foreign culture imposed on Iraq in 2005, 2006 and even in 2007. The result is that women become victims of violence and are forced to put on the veil."

In the post-Saddam period, religious militia had forced women to cover up under threat of being beaten.

During the last elections in 2005, female candidates didn't even dare put their photos on election posters.

But Iraq's parliament is taking increasing notice of female voices.

And for many politicians, Iraq is not an Islamic republic and there is no compulsion to hide behind the veil.

SOUNDBITE, Safiya al-Suhayil, Islamic Dawa Party (Arabic, 17 sec):
"The next parliament needs to be better than the last in fighting for women's rights. So do institutions and NGOs, because this is an urgent issue, especially for widows."

Iraq certainly has plenty of those.

And with a quarter of the 325 seats in Iraq's parliament reserved for women, there's now a real chance that they could feel better represented here than they have for some time.

SHOTLIST
BAGHDAD, 1 Mar 2010
SOURCE: AFPTV, ACCESS ALL

-GVs Baghdad election meeting
-GVs Baghdad stadium holding Nation Iraqi Alliance rally for Jawad Bolani, minister for the interior (an independent candidate within the coalition)
-GVs Sabah Abdul Rasul
-SOUNDBITE
-GVs election posters in streets of Baghdad
-GVs al-Suhayil in office
-SOUNDBITE
-GVs election rally
-GVs election posters