Iraq: Future Strategic Relationship

Indeed. We have attempted to link up with those women by video on several occasions. Colleagues in all parts of the House agreed to take part in video conferencing, but that has not happened yet—on the first occasion there was a sandstorm; on the second occasion there was an important vote in the Iraqi Parliament; on the third occasion there was a security issue; and on the last occasion the Iraqi Parliament suddenly went on holiday. We have not yet managed to organise that video conference, but we still hope to do so. The group of women MPs whom I meet in Iraq are varied. They come from all sides of Iraq and many are extremely impressive, but some are very new and need to be encouraged, which is one of the things that we can do here. As hon. Members have said, provincial elections are due to take place in Iraq on 31 January. Again, the Iraqi Parliament is to be congratulated. Recently, it passed legislation ensuring that 25 per cent. of those elected in the local elections will be women. Furthermore, it has agreed that minority groups—Christians, Shabaks, Yezidis, Mandaeans and others—will be guaranteed representation, which I welcome.