Dr Bayan Nouri Tawfeeq Nadir (born 11 January 1960,

Sulaymaniyah Sulaymaniyah, also spelled as Slemani ( ku, سلێمانی, Silêmanî, ar, السليمانية, as-Sulaymāniyyah), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, not far from the Iran–Iraq border. It is surrounded by the Azmar, Go ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

) is a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

i politician who was Minister of Women's Affairs from 18 October 2014 to 16 August 2015.Iraqi PM Scraps 11 Cabinet Posts In Reform Drive
''

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

'', 16 August 2014 She is a member of the

Kurdistan Islamic Union Kurdistan Islamic Union ( ku, یەکگرتووی ئیسلامیی کوردستان ;Yekgirtiya Îslamî ya Kurdistanê), colloquially referred to as Yekgirtû, is an Islamist party in Iraqi Kurdistan. Leadership and supporters Salahaddin Bahaaddi ...

Background

She was born in

, Iraqi Kurdistan, in 1960 and graduated as a

Civil Engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

in 1983. She was a founding member of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, a branch of the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

, in 1994 and has been a member of the party's political bureau since 2005.

Women's Minister

She was approved as a member of the government of

Haider al-Abadi Haider Jawad Kadhim al-Abadi ( ar, حيدر جواد كاظم العبادي; born 25 April 1952) is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq from September 2014 until October 2018. Previously he served as Minister of Communication fro ...

on 18 October 2014, receiving 164 votes from the 328 members of the

Council of Representatives The Council of Representatives (''Majlis an-nuwab''), sometimes translated as the "Chamber of Deputies", is the name given to the lower house of the Bahraini National Assembly, the national legislative body of Bahrain. The council was created ...

. She succeeded Dr. Ibtihal al-Zaidi. In an interview soon after taking office, she said the situation for women in Iraq had worsened in the last four years and she would try to improve the situation, in particular focussing on

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

. She opposed the draft personal status law, which allows marriage for girls from nine years old. She said she would aim to "restrict" polygamy, not going so far as to ban it due to concerns over the impact on divorced women. She says she is against religious marriages which aren't ratified by courts, as this causes legal problems for divorcees and their children. Regarding the niqab, she said women should have the freedom to wear the clothing they want without restriction. In May 2015, she blamed the turmoil caused by the Islamic state to be responsible for the surge of widows in Iraq. In August 2015, responding to popular demonstrations against government corruption and inefficiency, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced a reduction in the number of ministers, abolishing the Ministry of Women's Affairs. As a result, Dr Nouri left the cabinet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nouri, Bayan Women government ministers of Iraq Government ministers of Iraq Living people Iraqi Kurdistani politicians 1960 births Kurdistan Islamic Union politicians People from Sulaymaniyah 21st-century Kurdish people Iranian Kurdish politicians 21st-century Iraqi women politicians 21st-century Iraqi politicians Kurdish women in politics