They learn the domestic skills through participation. The Ba'ath Party has done much in Iraq to improve the availability of education. Primary education has been compulsory for both boys and girls, and there are some co-educational secondary schools, as well as separate secondary schools. A relatively high percentage of Iraqi young people are well educated. In any event, it has always been a possibility available only to the wealthier members of society.
Women have a great deal of power at home and over their children.
There is much written in the Western press about Arab women, who from a Western point of view appear to be very much dominated and repressed. In the more progressive countries, including Iraq, women from the upper-class families have always had access to education, and have been able to pursue careers and combine career and family. Recently, many of these women have been attempting to extend their rights to all Arab women. The most obvious and famous symbol of the status of Arab women is their public dress. Iraqi women have always been somewhat freer than women in the Arabian peninsula, but there are still many Iraqi women who cover their hair in public.