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“...r: Yes, yes.
Iqbal: So, I remained with the Arab nationalist movement until I joined the university and I was
in charge of the movement in the university. We were so committed that instead of wearing
new clothes we donated the money for nationalist activities. For example, they had a
newspaper called "Freedom newspaper" and I had to sell around 10 issues of it every week, if I
didn't sell them I had to pay for them from my own pocket. We were very committed that even
once they had problems in Iraq and we were forced to pay half our salaries, and we were
committed. But then they started to dig into socialism and there were internal disputes, some
people wanted communist socialism and other wanted to focus on the Palestinian Cause. At
that time I met my husband and I was studying and excelling at school. At the same time, I had
to take care of my home so I couldn't stay committed to the party so I froze my membership
and then they were separated ad that was the end of my work with them, but...”
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“...the Camp David
Treaty. He might have an excuse that the Arab countries didn't help him at all, they didn't help
Egypt and in the first round of war when they descended the Canal 15 thousands Egyptians
were killed. So, Camp David happened and Arabs were divided, even the Arab League changed,
even the Arab Women Federation was divided. Our headquarters were in Cairo and the Arab
Women Federation which I worked to re-establish had a seat in the United Nations, it was
divided into two parts, one in Iraq and the other in Syria, and once you divide an organization
each side claims to be in charge of it. Camp David was a huge blow to us, I think he should've...”
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“...prophets to guide people to the
right path, so the message of Islam has been there since the beginning of humanity and will be
there till the end of time, it's a message with a comprehensive humanistic theory, if those who
carries out those attacks were radicals then I think they are working to distort the image of this
great religion, truly. I'm telling you, the events of September 11 were against us 100% and they
turned the whole world against Islam and one of their repercussions was the war on Iraq. I was
the head of the head of the Lebanese women council in 2000 and I held an Arab conference in
Hotel Versaille, for Iraqi and Palestinian women, there was an uprising in Palestine at the time.
We brought women from all over the Arab World, those in charge of Arab organizations, and...”
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“...women. When the siege was imposed on Iraq, there was a siege on Iraq those days, there were
women with us from the Iraqi federation whose husbands died because there were no
antibiotics, they died of flue. They even deprived them of antibiotics on the grounds that
anything that could be used to make weapons was banned, they left them in hunger for 10 or
12 years. They took away their oil, they were banned from selling their oil, they learned to grow
crops. They told me that at some point they ate soil. Imagine that! Why? You think they were
punishing Saddam Hussein? No, they were punishing the Iraqi people who were very classy
people. I used to say that the Arab World's reserve in education, culture, pluralism and financial
wealth was in Iraq. All the countries that had broders with Israel were bombed, like Lebanon,
we would be bombed every 10 or 15 years, or every 6 years, we would be bombed by Israel,
they would destroy what we had built, but Iraq was building, although I am against ...”
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“...our system was, they took it and applied it to Iraq. It became a sectarian system, who could
make Iraq a civil state now? You know? Iraq is now divided into Sunnah, Shiite, Kurds, Turkmens
and others. Iraq was divided. It might still be one country by name but in reality it is no longer
one country. Is this democracy? They wanted to implement democracy? What is worse is that
at some point Bremer wanted to cancel the Iraqi civil status law which was one of the best civil
status law for women and children in the Arab World. He wanted to have separate courts for
Sunnah and Shiite like what we have here. But there were Iraqi women who protested that, I
contacted them. They occupied Iraq but this was worse than occupation, because the Iraqi
people were a single social fabric, they intermarried, so this could have cause a lot of problems
between families. Another thing is that despite having separate courts, at least we had courts,
now if you cancelled the courts what would happen to women? What...”
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“...because when... what was it called, it
was in the refugee camp up north?
Interviewer: Al-Yarmouk?
Iqbal: the Fatah Al-lslam group in Al-Bared refugee camp, who had sent their leader there? He
was a prisoner in Syria, what brought them all the way here? And what did the leader of the
resistance say? "this is a red line that the Lebanese army can't cross". So, some things are
happening, the people aren't left to decide what they want to do alone. What are we heading
to? This new plan to divide Syria, Iraq or Egypt. I am happy for Egypt now, because, why do the
Americans want the Muslim Brotherhood to assume power in the Arab countries? So that we
would go backwards, so that women would be confined to houses and to force us to wear this,
this veil isn't Islamic, it's not stated. It is stated that, how can I say this? Before Islam, women
were sold in the market in the pre-lslamic era, just for pleasure, so Islam came and aid no, you
are a human being, all the Verses of the Quran state that women...”
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“...kept working, I was trained
there. A number of courses... that wasn't common back then, they started to offer these
courses in order to create women leaders. I was trained once in Iraq and once in Egypt at the
Arab Women's Federation. It had representatives from all Arab countries, those federations
were popular. The problem is that whenever there's a dictator, they would take this away from
common people and appoint the people they choose. They chose the leaders of federations,
like in Syria and Iraq for example. Until Camp David came along as I told you. If you recall, after
Camp David Arabs boycotted Egypt and shunned it completely, and the headquarters of the
federation were no longer in Egypt. Suhair Al-Qalamawi was the last president of the federation
came here and it was divided between Syria and Iraq before it was dissolved. Until I became the
council's president and I suggested reviving the federation and building it again. During the
conferences we held, we would form a committee...”
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