Mrs Hashimia Muhsin Hussein has been elected the President of the Electricity and Energy Workers' Union in Basra - the first woman trade union leader in Iraq's history.
Hashimia Muhsin Hussein exclusively outlined to the IFTU web site her union's work and the current challenges faced by workers in the highly sensitive energy sector in particular as well as the social and economic problems facing workers in general.
Mrs Hussein first explained how she became President of the Electricity and Energy Union in Basra, saying she was hesitant at first to put her name forward for election due to economic hardship and social problems women are experiencing in Basra and Iraq.
However, she became convinced that in order to improve working conditions, wages and social provision - and above all women's rights - she needed to be an active campaigner and to take up a leading position inside the electricity and energy union.
Mrs Hussein put her name forward for election to the union presidency in May 2004. She won the full support and trust of her colleagues who encouraged and appealed to her to stand for the post of Union President.
Mrs Hussein won the post, because of her charisma and strong personality and her reputation as a solid defender of workers' rights and particularly of women's rights.
Since winning the post on 13th May 2004, she has campaigned relentlessly for workers' welfare at Basra's energy and electricity plants. However, she said that workers there are still facing huge problems. For example, some local Iraqi civil administrators in Basra are deliberately trying to revive the repressive practices and attitudes of Saddam's discredited 1987 anti-union law, which banned public sector workers from forming or joining unions.
Mrs Hashimia Hussein stressed the strong links her union has with the IFTU's Basra regional organisation. She said that her union was one of the founders of the IFTU Basra and will remain affiliated. IFTU Basra is a full and active member of the IFTU.
Mrs Hussein and leading members of the Basra Electricity and Energy Union dismissed "false rumours circulating abroad that her union is not part of the IFTU."
"These rumours aim to confuse and undermine the real work of the IFTU and its affiliated unions."
She called upon good unbiased journalists to report the facts.
She said: "The IFTU is the largest union in Iraq and our union is a part of the Basra and national IFTU, which will continue to struggle for workers rights' to union representation, social justice and a stable, pluralistic and democratic Iraq."