EUAM Iraq’s Gender and Human Rights Adviser conducted a workshop on Women Integration in Intelligence Operations for female participants of the Federal Investigation and Intelligence Agency (FIIA), Iraqi Ministry of Interior. The workshop was conducted over 2 days, on 27th and 28th of June 2022 at the Mission's Joint Coordination Centre in Baghdad.

20 Iraqi women intelligence officers and commissioned officers attended the 2-day workshop that witnessed fruitful discussions and active participation. 

The workshop aimed to identify barriers and challenges for female engagement in operations as well as to collect ideas for action on how to overcome some of those barriers.

On day one, Ms Fatima Kadem, Head of FIIA Women Committee delivered a presentation on women in the Iraqi constitution, UNSCR 1325 / the WPS agenda, the Iraqi National Action Plan (NAP) and specifically what the Ministry of Interior is doing to implement the 2nd I-NAP, as well as FIIA's strategy on women in intelligence. In interactive group exercises the participants collected challenges on the personal, family/community, as well as institutional level.

On day two of the workshop, EUAM Iraq's Gender and Human Rights Adviser Ms Anette Schwitzke presented the model  “circles of influence”. Participants structured the challenges and barriers identified on day one according to the level of influence they perceived they had to change them. In a second step, ideas on how to tackle the challenges were discussed. The most promising approaches were presented to the plenary.

The workshop ended with a presentation by guest speaker Ms Ann Kate Pedersen, Advisor on Women, Peace and Security, NATO Mission in Iraq. Ms. Pedersen and her Close Protection Officer Julie spoke about their experiences as women in uniform, highlighting the challenges and sharing valuable lessons learned.

The participants were then presented with certificates of participation at the end of the workshop.