The Economic Empowerment of Iraqi Women

2026-03-30

​The Economic Empowerment of Iraqi Women
​ Bayt al-Hikma – Department of Women's Affairs, held a scientific symposium today, Sunday, March 29, 2026, titled "The Economic Empowerment of Iraqi Women," chaired by Professor Dr. Adnan Yassin Mustafa from the University of Baghdad, with Dr. Nawar Ali Ahmed, a researcher in the Department of Women's Affairs at Bayt al-Hikma, serving as the rapporteur.
​The symposium highlighted one of the most significant contemporary issues receiving broad global attention, especially on the economic level; as women's empowerment represents the cornerstone for achieving sustainable development. The symposium also addressed a diagnosis of the obstacles facing women's economic empowerment and attempted to draw future prospects in light of the data and analytical results.
​A group of elite professors from the College of Administration and Economics at the University of Baghdad participated in the symposium. Professor Dr. Ghufran Hatem Alwan presented a research paper titled "The Impact of Women's Economic Empowerment on Sustainable Growth," in which she reviewed an analysis of the most important women's empowerment indicators in Iraq and the Sustainable Development Index for the period (2004-2024). She also built a model to measure the impact of women's empowerment indicators in Iraq on sustainable development by analyzing the long-term and short-term relationship using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model.
​Meanwhile, Assistant Professor Dr. Hamdia Shaker presented a research paper titled "Women’s Economic Empowerment and the Labor Market," which addressed the necessity of highlighting the role of women in society as active members in international relief programs and projects, and formulating a strategy that involves viewing the issue of women and their work as an integral part of the societal issue.
​Furthermore, Assistant Professor Dr. Saja Fadel Jawad discussed in her paper titled "Women's Financial Empowerment and its Relationship with Poverty," the relationship between financial empowerment and poverty through a presentation of indicators and statistics on the current reality of Iraqi women. This was in addition to discussing the extent of financial empowerment's impact on reducing poverty and presenting successful international models and experiences.
​Additionally, Professor Duaa Jassim Hameed participated with a research paper titled "The Role of Education in Women's Economic Empowerment," in which she addressed the importance of education in enhancing economic opportunities for women and achieving sustainable development, clarifying the challenges facing women's education, primarily poverty, in addition to school dropouts, social discrimination, and weak vocational training.
​For his part, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Bayt al-Hikma, Dr. Qahtan Nima Hassan Al-Khafaji, emphasized in his intervention the importance of social integration between women and men in life, and the role of think tanks and research centers in shedding light on issues concerning women. He also stressed the focus on utilizing the media in raising societal awareness of rights and duties with the aim of reducing negative behaviors and phenomena.
​The symposium was attended by a group of academics and specialized professors in social and legal affairs, along with a number of intellectuals and those interested in societal issues from various scientific centers, who enriched the symposium with valuable interventions and comments.