The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a front-page story today about a series of international teleconferences Thompson Coburn’s St. Louis office has held with a group of women attorneys in Kirkuk, Iraq.
The teleconferences connect the Iraqi lawyers with members of the Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater St. Louis, including Thompson Coburn associate Kristine Bridges, the current president of the WLA.
Bridges told the Post-Dispatch that the association’s support of the Iraqi women aims to help advance women within the country’s legal system. Progress is slow, she said, but these monthly long-distance talks are valuable. "They've opened up a lot more," Bridges said of the Iraqi women.
The teleconferences often take place before dawn to accommodate the nine-hour time difference between St. Louis and Kirkuk. LeRon Buford, TC’s video teleconference specialist, attends the teleconferences to manage the audio and video link.
The Iraqi government building where the women attorneys meet occasionally suffers power outages that interrupt the satellite signal. The conversations are also halting because an Iraqi interpreter must translate the St. Louis women’s messages into both Kurdish and Arabic.
The Post-Dispatch quoted Washington University literature professor Fatemeh Keshavarz, who said change for the Iraqi women will come slowly and is affected by culture, religion and politics. "It's a long and very complicated and complex situation," Keshavarz said. "I think very much it's a battle worth fighting. It's wonderful they are coming together."
Click here to read more about the teleconferences.