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ASSOCIATED PRESS
IRAQ
'Army of widows' suffers blow to budget
BY KIM GAMEL Associated Press
BAGHDAD — Iraq's state minister for women's affairs has quit to protest a lack of resources for a daunting task — improving the lives of "a full army of widows" and other women left poor or abandoned by war.
In an interview Sunday with The Associated Press, Nawal al-Samarraie described how her office's budget was so tight that she often found herself dipping into her own pockets for the women who came begging for help.
She said she finally submitted her resignation last week in part because her budget was slashed from $7,500 to $1,500 per month
Nawal al-Samraaie talks to The Associated Press about her decision to resign as Iraq's state minister of women's affairs during an interview in Baghdad Sunday. Women lawmakers called on al-Samraaie to reverse her decision to resign. Al-Samraaie, a Sunni, said that she had asked to step down because her office was not a full ministry and had been given insufficient authority and resources to help the widows and other women facing great hardship in the country.
part of overall government spending cuts forced by plunging oil prices. The figure didn't include staff salaries.
"I reached to the point that I will never be able to help the women" said al-Samraraie, whose job lasted just six months. "The budget is very limited ... so what can I do?"
Al-Samarraie's resignation has cast a spotlight on the overwhelming problems facing Iraqi women, tens of thousands of them left poor or widowed by war.
An untold number have lost their husbands or other male relatives to violence or detention since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, often leaving them alone with children and virtually no safety net or job opportunities.
Al-Samaraire claimed Iraq had 3 million widows, calling it "a full
All Iraqis have undergone difficulties, but women face the additional danger of being sidelined in a male-dominated society. Widows in Iraq, for example, traditionally move in with their extended families.
army of widows, most of them not educated." The figure, which she said came from a government survey, includes those who lost their husbands under Saddam Hussein's regime and was impossible to verify.
MILITARY
TOPEKA - The Kansas Army National Guard has discharged its first homosexual soldier under the federal "don't ask-don't tell" policy.
Topeka woman discharged after seen kissing in a store
Amy Brian, who served nine years in the guard, including a stint in Iraq, was investigated
and "separated"
last month after a civilian co-worker told authorities they had seen her kissing a woman in a Wal-Mart checkout line.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brian joins almost 12,500 other lesbian, gay and bisexual service members who the Pentagon has discharged from 1994 to 2007.
"I'd never really tried to hide my homosexuality to the close people 1.
worked with" Brian said. "And they didn't seem to care or think any different of it."
The Washington-based Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit organization formed in response to the "don't ask-don't tell" policy, said women are discharged at a rate disproportionate to their presence in the military.
In 2003, for example, women made up 33 percent of all discharges tied to homosexual conduct but made up only 15 percent of all military personnel. Those numbers, based on the most recent statistics available, were gathered from the government under the Freedom of Information Act.
"Everyone I went with (to Iraq) knew I was gay and no one had a problem with it."
"I was not separated because of any type of misconduct but plain and simply because someone else had a problem with my sexuality," Brian said.
Between her enlistments, she
Brian joined the Kansas Army National Guard in 1991, wanting to follow in her father's footsteps. She served until 1994 and re-installed in 2003.
AMY BRIAN
Former Army soldier
got married, had a baby and divorced. She kept her secret for many years but told her family she was gay when she was deployed to Iraq.
During her first six months in Iraq, she was part of a maintenance crew at Camp Anaconda at Balad, working 12-hour shifts beside other American troops and
civilians from other countries. She later was asked to narrate award ceremonies, write evaluations and do office work.
In October 2005, she returned to the states and went back to her full-time job at the U.S. Property and Fiscal Office warehouse in Topeka. There she was eventually promoted to oversee the reorganizing of the Kansas Army National Guard's government purchase card program, which she said had been penalized for late payments and was losing rebate money.
"Everyone I went with (to Iraq) knew I was gay, and one no one had a problem with it," she said.
engine in business administration and training to become a purchasing and contracting officer. She was selected president of the employee committee and, in December 2007, became one of three people
She also began taking classes at Friends University for a master's
But last July another gay Guardsman told Brian "somebody has it in for you" and recommended she delete her MySpace page, which indicated she was a lesbian.
to ever receive the USPEO for Kansas Award of Excellence.
told her she was being investigated for homosexual conduct. Brian said someone sent several anonymous e-mails to her superiors, including the Kansas Adjutant General's Office, talking about her sexual orientation and a networking Web site that included her photo.
"I had so many gay friends in the military I know (my discharge) probably made them nervous ..."
Jared Maag, a major in the Kansas Army National Guard and deputy solicitor general with the Kansas Attorney General's Office, was appointed Brian's counsel. He said he understood that "the e-mails in and of themselves were not credible" but that the civilian's statement was enough for the Guard to begin an investigation.
In August, a Guard lieutenant
AMY BRIAN
Former Army soldier
Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General's Office, said the office became aware of the statement against Brian in August and looked into whether the case should go to a three-member administrative discharge board.
Watson said separation because of homosexual conduct is "not based on performance but based completely on federal law"The law requires the military to have proof of the conduct, an admission from the soldier or an attempt or successful application for same-sex marriage.
Brian waived her right to a board hearing and Maj. Gen. Todd Bunting, Kansas Adjutant General, signed off on the separation in December. It became effective Jan. 13.
She was given
a "general under honorable conditions" discharge, Watson said, costing her her benefits, including educational assistance and discounts.
"I had so many gay friends in the military," Brian said. "I know (my discharge) probably made them nervous all of the sudden."