IWFF Fellows with the Ambassador of Iraq to the US on their visit to Washington, DC February 2010
The IWFF was launched in 2008, with seed funding from the US State Department (US Embassy Baghdad), to provide Iraqi women faculty and students with first rate higher education in engineering and applied sciences - from mechanical engineering, bio-engineering, and architecture to the environment, computer sciences and other applied sciences. IWFF fellows are placed at top rate US universities, and return to Iraq with new knowledge in their fields and leadership skills, that enable them to take leading roles in rebuilding, stabilizing and providing for the immediate and long term development of Iraq.
During the last half of the Saddam regime, Iraqi women were not allowed to hold senior positions in academia or the work place – though they had become among the country’s best engineers, scientists, and lawyers. These policies have now been reversed, and the rights of women require reinforcement and support. Women comprise 52% of the population, but only 34% of university students and less than 23% of the workforce, and lag behind in all aspects of social and economic participation. The IWFF program is an investment in two critical needs of the new democracy: promoting women’s rights, through education and access to professional careers; and, developing leadership and professional expertise to rebuild and develop infrastructure, and broaden capacity in fields from environmental science to computer science to medical education administration. Iraqi women have a vital role to play. They will be among the leaders, professionals, innovators, teachers and role models for a new generation of Iraqis.