The Role of Communist Women in the Adoption of the Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959

Communist women contributed by virtue of their affiliation with the League for the Defense of Iraqi Women's Rights ([1])IWRI) and by virtue of their position in the government, especially after the appointment of Dr. Naziha Al-Dulaimi([2]) as Minister of Municipalities on July 13, 1959, in the adoption of the Personal Status Law, which is the first progressive law in Iraq and the Arab region as a whole that guarantees women part of their civil and political rights. The research was divided into two axes, the first axis dealt with the role of the League for the Defense of Women's Rights in issuing the Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959. The second axis dealt with the position of clerics and political forces opposed to the issuance of the Personal Status Law. ([1])Iraqi Women's League: It is a "mass social feminist organization, which includes Iraqi women of different classes, nationalities, religions and political beliefs, and follows the methods of democracy in making its decisions and the sum of its work, called (League for the Defense of Women's Rights), for more details see: Khanum Zuhdi, pages from the history of the women's movement in Iraq, Baghdad, Dar Al-Rowad Al-Izhira for Printing and Publishing, 2007, p. 37. ([2]) Naziha Al-Dulaimi: One of the pioneers of the feminist movement in Iraq, born in 1924 in the locality of Al-Baroudia in Baghdad, completed her primary and intermediate studies in the applications of Dar Al-Muallemat and secondary school for girls, studied medicine and was one of the first women who entered the Faculty of Medicine and graduated in 1940, joined the Communist Party in 1947 and received its membership in 1948, a political fighter and accompanied the national struggle and contributed to the demonstrations of the leap of Cannon, and also contributed to the establishment of the Iraqi Women's Association in 1952, and was She has a major and effective role in the enactment of the Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959, and on July 13, 1959, Naziha Al-Dulaimi was appointed Minister of Municipalities, the first Arab woman to hold the position of minister, and on May 13, 1960, she was relieved of the position and appointed to the position of Minister of State. As a result of the government's policy of harassment against communist figures, Naziha Al-Dulaimi traveled to the Soviet Union and remained there until the coup of February 8, 1963, returned to the country in 1967 and practiced political work until 1979 when she left Iraq, died in the city of Potsdam in Germany in 2007 at the age of 85 years and her body was transferred to Iraq and buried in the cemetery of Sheikh Maarouf Al-Karkhi in Baghdad. For more details see: Muwaffaq Khalaf Ghanem, Naziha Al-Dulaimi and her role in the national and political movement in Iraq, Baghdad, Dar Al-Rowad Al-Izhira, 2014, pp. 36-169.