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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 BAGHDAD 003443 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR G/IWI 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN PREL KPAO PHUM IZ
SUBJECT: NOMINATIONS FOR 2009 SECRETARY'S WOMEN OF COURAGE 
AWARD 
 
REF: STATE 99729 
 
¶1. (SBU) Per Reftel, Embassy Baghdad is pleased to submit its 
list of nominees for the Secretary's 2008 Award for 
International Women of Courage, keyed to the priorities in 
the reference.  Embassy Baghdad is submitting four (4) 
nominees, but understands that only three of them will be 
considered by G/IWI.  All nominees have been informed of the 
Ambassador's intention to nominate them and are available to 
travel in March 2008.  A list of nominees in rank order 
follows. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  First Priority:  Saja Qaddoori Azeez 
Date of Birth:  20 August, 1960 
Country of Birth:  Iraq 
Citizenship:  Iraqi 
Job Title/association:  Member of the Diyala Provincial 
Council (PC) and Member of the PC Security Committee 
Address: 22 Almualmein District, Baqubah, Iraq 
Telephone:   964 (0)7906842347 
Email:  sajadiyala@yahoo.com 
Passport #: G1191845 
 
Justification:  Saja Qaddoori Azeez may not be a very tall 
woman but she is certainly strong and has a habit of always 
smiling.  Two years ago, Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) kidnapped her 
husband.  He was a law student at Diyala University and her 
friends say he was very proud of his wife and the work she 
was doing to support women in the province.  Saja opened a 
woman's center in downtown Baqubah.  Everyday when her 
husband left the University, he would call her at the woman's 
center and let her know he was on his way to pick her up. 
One day he called her to say he was on his way but he never 
arrived at the center.  Very few members of the Provincial 
Council know very many details about the kidnapping of her 
husband.  Most say they have not had any word about him in 
two years and it is very likely he was killed.  When you meet 
Saja, it is nearly impossible to know she carries such a 
great burden from the grief of the loss of her husband.  She 
throws herself into projects and is the only woman in the 
Provincial Council to sit on what is considered a hard 
science committee, security. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Saja champions the necessity of women in the field 
of security especially in Diyala province, which has the 
highest number of female suicide bombers of any other 
province in Iraq.  At a conference sponsored by the 
Multi-National Division North in Irbil in early June, Saja 
cornered an American General to insist he help get more women 
into the field of security.  The General saw Saja again at 
the first graduation of female Iraqi Police last month and he 
reminded her that she had pushed for more women and he was 
trying to help deliver that.  Saja says the most important 
field which needs women in Diyala is the field of 
intelligence.  She says they need women intelligence officers 
because that is the only way to break the AQI recruitment of 
females to carry out suicide attacks. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Saja was very close with her father who raised her 
to value independence and to fight for fairness and 
righteousness.  Both of her parents have passed away now and 
her sister helps Saja by watching her son while Saja goes to 
work.  The Diyala Provincial Council has seen eight members 
assassinated since 2005 and two of those were women but that 
does not prevent Saja from consistently attending public 
events and encouraging women to speak out for their rights. 
Saja also lost a brother who was executed by Saddam Hussein 
in 1990 but her family did not find out until after the fall 
of Saddam.  Saja and her family had always distanced 
themselves from the Ba,ath party and Saddam,s regime.  She 
used to work as a high school teacher and taught Arabic, and 
she was the only faculty member of the 55 teachers who was 
not a member of the Ba,ath party.  She says many people 
treated her unfairly because she was a Shia and a member of 
the Independent party. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Saja says after the fall of Saddam,s regime, she 
set her mind to becoming the first female member of the 
Baqubah City Council.  There were five seats within the 
Council,s cabinet and only one of those seats was reserved 
for a female member.  Saja became the first and only female 
 
BAGHDAD 00003443  002.2 OF 006 
 
 
member of the Baqubah City Council in 2004 and quickly saw 
the need to extend greater support and recognition to the 
women of Baqubah.  She organized the first Women's Conference 
and had over 150 women attend from all over Iraq.  The 
following year the provincial elections were held and Saja 
won a seat on the Provincial Council.  As a member of the 
security committee, she began to receive death threats nearly 
daily and her family was also threatened.  Nearly a year 
later, her husband was kidnapped and Saja took two months off 
from work.  Saja used her grief to push herself even harder 
and returned to the Provincial Council more determined than 
ever that more had to be done in order to promote security 
throughout the province. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Saja is working to improve the intelligence 
offices throughout the province and is ensuring they have 
better communication equipment to make them a viable force in 
the elimination of terrorism.  This year Saja also assisted 
when tensions flared in Khanaqin between the Peshmerga (armed 
Kurdish forces) and the Iraqi Army.  She traveled to Khanaqin 
to personally deliver a message to insist both sides remain 
calm and not engage.  Saja brought the media along with her 
because she also understands how important it is to get the 
message out to the people.  Tensions finally abated, but it 
was a volatile time to travel to that area. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Unlike many political figures in the province, 
Saja is not afraid to attend open events or be seen on 
television.  She says she is a daughter of Diyala and 
therefore a daughter of Iraq and people need to see that 
there is a future for her country.  The other women of the 
Provincial Council look to Saja for her leadership on key 
issues.  The women have formed an all-female caucus realizing 
they are stronger as a bloc than as members of their 
individual parties.  During a recent boycott staged by the 
female members over unequal standards in comparison with the 
male members of the Provincial Council, it was Saja who 
managed to find a solution to the problem and encourage the 
women that it was time to return to work in order to help the 
people of Diyala. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  The next elections are just a few months away, and 
Saja says this is another opportunity to savor the democracy 
of new Iraq.  Although there are 12 fewer seats for the 
Diyala Provincial Council this year, women must still make up 
a percentage of the Council and Saja is hopeful she will have 
an opportunity to continue her work with security and women's 
issues in the province.  The Provincial Council Chairman 
believes Saja is one of only three female members he feels 
should be re-elected for the excellent work she has done in 
the last three years.  According to Saja, the women of the 
Provincial Council are closer than sisters despite their 
religious differences.  One member of the Provincial Council 
described Diyala as a wounded province, and Saja herself is 
also wounded from the great loss of her husband but it is 
inspiring to see both going through the healing process and 
becoming stronger and more secure.  Saja is a fighter and 
will continue to work for the betterment of her home even if 
she does not get re-elected. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  Second Priority:   Suaad Abbas Salman Al-Lami 
Full Legal Name:  Suaad Abbas Salman Al-Lami 
Job title/association:  Lawyer, Director, Legal Center for 
Supporting Women 
Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq 
Date of birth: March 1, 1967 
Country of birth:  Iraq 
Citizenship:  Iraqi 
Address: Muhalla 557, Alley 55, House 1/8, Sadr City, 
Baghdad, Iraq 
Telephone:   07901644319 
e-mail: suaad allami@yahoo.com 
Passport number:   G1187657 
 
Justification:  On International Women's Day 2008, the 
Embassy of Japan in Iraq awarded a Grassroots Grant to our 
nominee Suaad Al-Lami, the founder of the Women For Progress 
Non-Governmental Organization, to purchase an ultrasound 
machine for her Sadr City Women's Center, the most 
comprehensive of its kind,  Offering medical exams, domestic 
violence counseling, literacy education, vocational training, 
 
BAGHDAD 00003443  003 OF 006 
 
 
child care, exercise opportunities and legislative advocacy, 
the Center, as well as her all-female Women's Legal Clinic in 
Sadr City, are the creative offspring of this diminutive but 
increasingly prominent female lawyer and women's rights 
advocate.  The women's Center is the third stage in her 
ambitious and courageous plan set in motion to elevate the 
status of women in Iraq.  Her two Women Lawyers Continuing 
Education seminars, held in February and July 2008, were the 
first ever in Iraq and attracted 99 women lawyers from across 
Baghdad.  These training events, critical to helping Iraqi 
women lawyers compete in a male dominated legal system, are 
necessary adjuncts to leveling the playing field for Iraqi 
women.  This pioneer is developing program content for her 
independent radio show "Ask A Woman" to be broadcast from 
Sadr City. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Her focus on women is not of recent vintage.  She 
has been in the trenches for women's rights in Iraq for 
years, walking a tightrope between championing women and not 
becoming a target to those culturally indisposed to strong 
and vocal females looking for an equal place at the social 
altar.  More compelling and unlike other Iraqi women 
activists advocating from the safer confines of Jordan or 
abroad, her advocacy is rooted in her Sadr City home turf. 
She believes that Iraq needs to rely on talented women who 
make up a majority of the population yet are only a small 
fraction of its workforce, especially in the professional 
arena.  She recognizes that, although Iraqi women have had 
certain Constitutional rights, these often prove insufficient 
to permit women to strive for and actually enjoy the same 
opportunities and quality of life as men.  On the national 
political scene, only a few of the Cabinet Ministries are 
held by women.  Women remain only a tiny fraction of the 
country's judiciary, shortcomings she is targeting. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Despite threats and intimidation in the belly of 
Al Sadr, she is determined to press her agenda.  She is that 
strong and credible advocate Iraqi women need to ensure that 
equality is not only talked about but practiced and upheld in 
ground truth.  She toils in relative obscurity in stark 
contrast to the brilliance of what she has done and where she 
works.  She remains the only woman on the 40 person Sadr City 
District Council, serving as Chair of its Women and Children 
Committee since 2004.  She previously served on the Baghdad 
Provincial Council from 2004 to 2005.  She authored the 
January 2008 By-Laws for all Baghdad Province District and 
Qada Councils.  She resisted, at great risk to her life, an 
effort by a Sadr City power broker to extort her Women's 
Center program, choosing instead to cancel the initial 
program rather than yield to the strong arm tactics. 
Agreeing to a request from UNAMI to head its August 2008 
humanitarian food distribution drive in Sadr City, she 
intervened in an effort by another DC member to steal the 
supplies.  In May 2008 she was selected from over 60 
applicants Iraq-wide for funding under the Ambassador's 
Targeted Development Program.  Her proposal to provide 18,000 
Sadr City schoolchildren with uniforms was approved for USD 
1,800,000.  Another proposal to create four more women's 
centers, modeled after her Sadr City effort, in the Adhamiyah 
area of Baghdad was approved for USD 700,000.  She has filed 
proposals with US-funded entities to teach internationally 
recognized human rights to all of the Baghdad District 
Councils and human rights to militia age males, taught by 
strong women role models, as a deterrent to violent thinking. 
 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  She has consistently been a moderate and reasoned 
voice on the Sadr City District Council.  She has engaged 
frequently with US Government and Coalition Forces, in 
public, in and outside the Green Zone, at great personal 
risk. On May 12, 2008, in cooperation with a female Sunni 
Member of Iraq's Parliament, she conducted an unannounced 
inspection of the Kadhamiya Women's Prison, long reputed to 
be a chamber of human rights abuses.  Controversy followed 
her troubling published findings.  The Prison was recently in 
the process of being closed by the Minister of Human Rights. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) She has been a practicing lawyer in Iraqi courts 
for 16 years.  Though Sadr City born and bred, she remains 
open to ideas and different perspectives in the most 
difficult ideological and cultural terrain.  She recently 
 
BAGHDAD 00003443  004 OF 006 
 
 
declined a request from the Sadrist bloc to run in the 
provincial elections.  Owing to her moderate views she also 
recently entertained a request from a minority Sunni party to 
so run.  She will continue to convince the government and 
political parties that women are underutilized and must be 
embraced if Iraq is to be taken seriously on the world stage. 
 This unassuming and well-respected figure in the legal and 
women's rights communities in Baghdad is a rising star whose 
potential to effect change and impact women's rights Iraq 
wide is limited only by threats and intimidation. 
¶14.  (SBU)  Third Priority:  Najat Shakir Munshid al-Hameedawi 
Full Legal Name: Najat Shakir Munshid al-Hameedawi 
Job title/association:  Member of the Baghdad Suburban 
Services Board, Istiqlal Qada (District) Council, and 
Husseiniya Nahia (Sub-district) Council; Ms. Najat serves on 
numerous committees of local government and is an active 
member of Iraq,s civil society community, including as the 
head of the Istiqlal Organization for Women Development and 
Training. 
Date of birth:  15 June 1967 
Country of Birth:  Iraq 
Citizenship: Iraq 
Address: Husseiniya, Iraq 
Telephone: 0790 171 5984 
Email: alqaisinajat@yahoo.com 
Passport number: G1465206 
 
Justification:  Ms. Najat, Istiqlal District Council member 
and grassroots community activist, is a familiar face to the 
ePRTs and battalion maneuver units with responsibility for 
the rural areas of Baghdad province outside the city gates. 
Since the fall of the old regime in 2003 she has advocated 
for women's rights, peace and reconciliation, and better 
services for her constituents.  While she has received at 
least 13 certificates of appreciation or letters of 
recommendation from U.S. agencies, her greatest admirers are 
inevitably at the local level, outside the spotlight.  These 
include military commanders who see her defend her rights 
across the table from influential sheikhs, ePRT advisors who 
have seen her develop detailed bylaws for the women's 
organization she heads, and the USAID and DRL partners whose 
training programs she tirelessly pursues to better herself in 
her duties.  Ms. Najat has never wavered in her democratic 
cause or her support for the Coalition Forces that share that 
cause even in the face of extreme danger to herself and her 
family. 
 
¶15.  (SBU)  Ms. Najat,s day job on the Istiqlal district 
council and Husseiniya sub-district council includes 
leadership positions on the district,s Women & Children,s 
Committee and four sub-district committees.  At the 
provincial level, she serves as the Istiqlal representative 
to the Baghdad Suburban Services Board (BSSB) and the chair 
of the Women & Children,s Committee for all of the rural 
districts of Baghdad.  Her commitment to grassroots 
governance provides a stark contrast with a Baghdad PC that 
is often dominated by the interests of national level 
religious parties over constituent concerns.  This problem is 
particularly acute in the rural areas whereas the services of 
Baghdad City are managed by a ministerial-level municipality, 
the rural districts are overseen by much weaker local 
councils.  In the face of these structural barriers, in her 
role on the BSSB, she advocates as hard and effectively for 
her own Shia areas just north of Sadr City as for the Sunni 
areas to the West and South of Baghdad.  Ms. Najat's efforts 
are thus addressing a key link in the counterinsurgency fight 
to support the population in these strategically important 
Baghdad belts.  As Baghdad governance and bottom-up 
reconciliation are essential to the U.S. mission in Iraq, her 
commitment to deliver services to her constituents deserves 
the highest recognition. 
 
¶16.  (SBU)  Outside her official duties, Ms. Najat founded 
the Istiqlal Organization for Women Development and Training 
intended to strengthen the role of women in Iraq,s 
democracy.  She has received training in this arena both from 
the International Republican Institute in Sulaymaniah and 
from the Afro-Asian Lawyers Federation in Cairo.  She has 
also played an oversight role in Iraqi elections for the 
Constitution and for the Council of Representatives in 2005. 
One of her biggest goals is to develop an acceptance of a 
 
BAGHDAD 00003443  005 OF 006 
 
 
strong role for women in leadership within the Iraqi cultural 
traditions, for example, through tribal sheikhs providing 
public support for women candidates in this year,s Iraqi 
elections. 
 
¶17.  (SBU) But what truly makes Ms. Najat,s achievements and 
tireless efforts amazing is her incredible story of courage. 
Ms. Najat put her life and that of her family in danger on a 
daily basis by working for the Government of Iraq and with 
Coalition Forces.  She risked her life further by speaking up 
for her strongly held ideas of democracy and women,s rights 
and against the terrorist groups and sectarian militias who 
do not want to see a stronger role for women in Iraqi 
society.  The terrorist threat became reality on a Friday in 
the winter of 2006, when Ms. Najat was violently dragged from 
her home in front of her family by a gang of Jaysh al-Mahdi 
(JAM) Special Groups militia.  She was tortured and brought 
to trial in one of the Sharia courts operated by JAM and 
sentenced to death.  However, on her way to execution, she 
convinced her executioner that she was innocent and to let 
her go for the sake of her small children.  Her executioner 
was persuaded and released her with strict instructions to 
leave Baghdad and Iraq. 
 
¶18.  (SBU)  Ms. Najat refused to leave following her release. 
 Since the kidnapping she has divided her family so they live 
with relatives in three different cities throughout Iraq and 
she can continue to work for her community, for democracy, 
and for her country.  The threat has not diminished and yet 
she continues to carry out her official duties and has only 
increased her activism and fight for women,s rights.  As she 
stated, the danger is not over, "But I still want to work and 
prove something to Iraq and to put my fingerprint on the work 
to serve the Iraqi people."  Ms. Najat,s dedication to her 
native Iraq and to building a free country for her children 
and future generations despite those dangers and threats to 
her and her family are a true testament to her courage, 
patriotism, and devotion to duty.  Ms. Najat was notified 
that she was being nominated and confirmed her willingness to 
accept the award and travel to Washington DC. 
 
¶19. (SBU)  Fourth Priority: Wijdan Michael Shamo Salim 
Full Legal Name:  Wijdan Michael Shamo Salim 
Job title: Minister of Human Rights, Government of Iraq 
Date of Birth: December 20, 1962 
Country of Birth: Iraq 
Citizenship: Iraqi 
Address: International Zone, Baghdad, Iraq 
Telephone:  9647901111162 
Email: wmyousif@gmail.com, wmyousif@yahoo.com 
Passport number: D1000574 
 
Justification:  In Wijdan Salim,s two years as the Iraqi 
Minister of Human Rights, she has worked tirelessly to 
transform her ministry into an effective and functioning 
body.  The ministry has previously struggled to fulfill its 
mandate in the face of unstable security situations, but Ms. 
Salim has transformed it into a key institution within the 
Government of Iraq.  She is a powerful and courageous 
proponent for human rights, and her voice has brought greater 
and much needed attention to human rights issues in Iraq. 
 
¶20.  (SBU)  She works with international organizations, local 
NGOs, and foreign missions to ensure that her ministry and 
human rights officials in other GOI branches receive 
essential human rights training.  She is very active in 
ensuring government policies and legislation meet and are 
implemented according to human rights standards.  She has led 
her ministry to increase mass grave investigations and pursue 
related criminal cases, improve detention facilities and 
detainee lives, and improve the lives of religious and ethnic 
minorities.  As a member of a minority group in Iraq herself, 
Ms. Salim takes a strong interest in understanding the 
realities of the situation, the greatest needs of the 
minorities, and possible government solutions.  She is 
committed to improving human rights in Iraq and leading Iraq 
to become an example for the region. 
 
¶21.  (SBU)  Within the government, Ms. Salim has fought every 
day to defend human rights in government policies and 
actions.  She has faced significant obstacles, including 
 
BAGHDAD 00003443  006 OF 006 
 
 
continuous threats on her and her family's life, but she has 
never backed down.  As a female, religious minority, and 
political independent, she has overcome many difficulties to 
get to such a high position.  She is one of the most 
outspoken members of the cabinet, often inciting anger, but 
she has earned the respect of the predominantly male 
government.  Ms. Salim has not allowed the government to 
ignore human rights and is now involved in almost every major 
political issue facing Iraq.  She is one of the Embassy's 
core allies in the GOI and is always willing to work with the 
Embassy and the Military on various human rights causes, 
particularly in improving the detention systems and 
protecting the rights of vulnerable populations. 
 
CROCKER