Her brother’s keeper? Iraq’s only female cabinet minister could lose her job over alleged family ties to ISIS.
Iraq’s prime minister is weighing whether to accept the resignation of his education minister after allegations surfaced online that her brother had been a senior figure in the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Mosul. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s decision could have a far-reaching impact on a society that is emerging from a costly […]Tamer El-Ghobashy writes for The Washington Post:
Iraq’s prime minister is weighing whether to accept the resignation of his education minister after allegations surfaced online that her brother had been a senior figure in the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Mosul.
Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s decision could have a far-reaching impact on a society that is emerging from a costly war against the militants and is struggling to heal from the deep social and political divisions caused by the Islamic State occupation.
Shaima al-Hayali, an academic from Mosul University, was barely one week into her ministerial post when members of a rival political bloc alleged that her brother had been an administrator for the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Her case is the highest-profile instance of what human rights groups and some Iraqi politicians have described as overzealous collective punishment of people whose family members worked with the militant group, whether by force or choice.
