Dr Bayan Nouri Tawfeeq Nadir (born 11 January 1960,

Sulaymaniyah Sulaymaniyah or Slemani (; ), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and is the capital of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate. It is surrounded by the Azmar (Ezmer), Goizha (Goyje) and Qaiwan (Qeywan) Mountains in the northeast, Bara ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

) is a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

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 media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

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

Kurdistan Islamic Union Kurdistan Islamic Union (), colloquially referred to as Yekgirtû, is a Kurdish Islamist party in Iraqi Kurdistan. Leadership and supporters Salahaddin Bahaaddin cofounded the Kurdistan Islamic Union on February 6, 1994. In the first General C ...

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 i ...

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

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

, 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 (; 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 from 2003 to 2004, in the first government afte ...

on 18 October 2014, receiving 164 votes from the 328 members of the Council of Representatives. She succeeded Dr.

Ibtihal al-Zaidi Ibtihal Qassed al-Zaidi () is a Quranic studies scholar and former public servant from Iraq. In 2012, while serving as Iraq's Minister for Women's Affairs, al-Zaidi was subject to controversy after disclosing she did not believe in equality betwe ...

. 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 is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

. 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 A niqāb, niqab, or niqaab (; ), also known as a ruband () or rubandah (), is a long garment worn by some Muslim women in order to cover their entire body and face, excluding their eyes. It is an interpretation in Islam of the concept of ...

, 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 State ministers of Iraq Living people Iraqi Kurdistani politicians 1960 births Kurdistan Islamic Union politicians People from Sulaymaniyah 21st-century Kurdish politicians Iranian Kurdish politicians 21st-century Iraqi women politicians 21st-century Iraqi politicians Kurdish women in politics 21st-century Kurdish women