OneWorld.net (U.S.)

NEW YORK, Feb 5 (OneWorld) - The women of Iraq, who were nominated along with the founder of a women's-support organization in the country, have been voted OneWorld's People of 2006.

Visitors to the OneWorld.net Web site submitted nominations for the honor in December 2006 and cast votes throughout the month of January, choosing among eight finalists selected by OneWorld, an international network of people and organizations focused on global issues.

Dr. Rashad Zidan and the women of Iraq received 28 percent of the vote, edging out former U.S. vice president and environmental activist Al Gore, who received 22 percent.

"Dr. Rashad Zidan...could be a guiding star for other women in the world, particularly for the Muslim women [and] specifically for the Arabs," said Ijaz Hussain, a voter commenting on the OneWorld poll. "It is time for the Arabs' women and men to mobilize their communities and speak up against the armed conflict and sectarian violence....Well done Dr. Rashad Zidan, you are setting another good example for the Arabs' women."

Zidan, a mother of four who worked for the Iraqi national pharmacy from 1981 until the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, founded the Knowledge for Iraqi Women Society in Baghdad in June of that year.

The Society, which has since opened satellite branches in Fallujah, Abu Ghraib, and the Dora neighborhood on the outskirts of Baghdad, provides medical, educational, and financial support as well job-skills training. It focuses on aiding women in their efforts to hold families and communities together throughout the ongoing violence. The rising number of orphans in the country has led the group to launch a project supporting their needs as well.

Women get access to free courses in sewing, cooking, English, Arabic, and computers at the Society, which also teaches basic reading and writing. Children can attend kindergarten classes at each branch, and orphans are accepted free of charge, according to Zidan. Each branch also includes a clinic staffed by volunteer doctors where women and children can get check-ups, medicine, general health advice, and mental health services.

The Society, which employs 70 staff and 300 volunteers, also provides loans to what it calls "decent families." The organization's Web site notes that some loans have helped families buy a tractor, sewing machines, and computers, while others have aided families in repairing a taxi and setting up small shops. Over 2 million Iraqi Dinars ($1,500) of credit has been provided since the program's launch.

Zidan believes that Iraqis must be given a greater role in solving their country's problems.

"In these last three years, the U.S. has just listened to its own voice, but I think it is time to listen to authentic Iraqi voices," said Zidan in an interview with the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) in March 2006. Zidan was in Washington as part of an Iraqi women's delegation sponsored by the U.S.-based women's antiwar group CodePink, which nominated Zidan for the People of 2006 honor.

"If you listen to the people who are in the midst of the conflict, they will help you better understand how to end the violence and suffering because they have firsthand knowledge and experience," she said.

During the March trip to the United States, Zidan spoke to audiences in Missouri, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Washington, DC.

Others selected as finalists for the OneWorld poll included renewable energy innovator Rob Hopkins; Latin America's first indigenous president Evo Morales; murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya; peace-through-development worker Al Santoli, who heads the non-profit Asia America Initiative; San Francisco-based immigrants' rights leader Renee Saucedo; and philanthropic leaders including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Richard Branson.

Also receiving nominations were Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, feminist activist Eve Ensler, actress and humanitarian advocate Angelina Jolie, Kosovar women's rights advocate Igballe Rogova, the founders of the Internet telephone company Skype, and Nobel Peace Prize winner and microcredit inventor Mohammed Yunus, among many others.

But time and again, through comments on the OneWorld Web site, voters indicated that Zidan's work and the efforts of Iraqi women facing overwhelming hardship deserved their top honor.

"Being a freelance translator...and translating reports about the suffering of Iraqis for humanitarian agencies--the huge percentage of disabled, the high-rocketing number of orphans and widows, the uncontrolled environmental pollution, etc.--have really devastated my life, which used to be peaceful," said S. Abdullah, who self-identified on the Web site as a teacher in Iraq.

"Being optimistic by nature has not been enough to overcome all the miseries I see or translate," Abdullah added. "I know very well how hard it is now to step out of the doorsteps of your house in present Iraq just to help those in need. This [is] why I nominate Dr. Rashad."