Women make up 29 percent of the candidates for the Iraqi Council of Representatives elections. Under the quota law, they have secured 83 parliamentary seats before the competition even begins.
The Independent High Electoral Commission in Iraq IHEC has published the names of 7,768 candidates for the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 11, with 2,248 of them being women.
These statistics show that women make up 29% of the total candidates across all Iraqi provinces. Along with the quota seats, women are aiming to secure even more seats with the support of voters.
According to Iraq's electoral law, 25% of the total 329 seats are allocated to women, which is equivalent to 83 seats.
In the previous parliamentary elections held in October 2021, women exceeded their quota share of seats, securing 97 seats in the Iraqi parliament. Out of these 97 female winners, 57 were able to secure their seats based on the votes they received without relying on the women quota system.
However, this representation did not translate to the executive branch, as there were only three women out of the 23-member cabinet in Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's government, making only 13%.
From 1925 to 1980, women were not allowed to run for parliament, but after that, they were able to secure varying numbers of seats in the People's Assembly and the legislative branch.
Since 2003, a quota for women has been established under the constitution, ensuring that their percentage does not drop below 25 percent of the total parliamentary seats.
In the first parliamentary session in 2005, women won 70 out of 275 seats, and in the second session in 2010, the number of parliamentary seats increased to 325, with women winning 83 seats.
In the 2014 elections, 83 women secured seats in parliament, with 22 of them winning based on their own votes without the quota system.
The fourth parliamentary session in 2018 saw 84 women winning seats, some of whom without relying on the quota system.
In addition to parliamentary representation, the recent Iraqi provincial council elections in December 2023 showed 76 women winning provincial council seats, with 17 of them outside the quota system, including three women who received the highest number of votes on their lists.
According to the 2024 general population census, women make almost half of the total population.
