Iraqi female nurses struggle for equality

Women in the health industry are looked down upon by Iraq's conservative society, but the need for nurses and for women to be employed are slowly liberalizing attitudes.
Nurses from a mobile team working for the Ministry of Health administer polio vaccinations to children under the age of five in a poor neighborhood of Baghdad on October 4, 2011. AFP PHOTO/SABAH ARAR (Photo credit should read SABAH ARAR/AFP/Getty Images)
Nurses from a mobile team working for the Ministry of Health administer polio vaccinations to children under the age of five in a poor neighborhood of Baghdad, Oct. 4, 2011. - SABAH ARAR/AFP/Getty Images
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Wassim Bassem
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Social media user Kamal Rahal expressed his wish for Iraqi nurses to “get married and have a happy life” on the "Iraq Nurse" Facebook page.

Rahal did not make this wish out of the blue. It was the automatic reaction of Iraqi society's harsh disapproval of female nurses and devaluation of their work.

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