This paper is a critical discourse analysis of the briefings made by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, to the United Nations Security Council about the place of women in Iraq. It fills a gap in the academic literature of international institutional discourses and how they draw representations of women's agency, challenges and engagement in Iraqi society after the conflicts. This study aims at identifying the discursive practices used in such briefings to symbolize the role of women, assess the ideological underpinnings of such symbolizations, and analyze whether these discursive practices enforce or challenges the existing gender power relations in Iraq. The study will utilize a mixed-methods research design, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis by examining 9 excerpts of three Security Council briefings given between October 2023 and May 2024. The theoretical and analytical approach has been offered by Fairclough's (1995) three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis consisting of textual analysis, discursive practice, and social practice. Results show that women in Iraq are mostly represented in passive and nominalized constructions, and they are mostly presented as beneficiaries of the institutional act as opposed to being agents. Evaluative language and modality markers also build on the empowerment of women as an aspirational goal that is dependent on government and even international intervention. The research finds that, despite the recognition of gains in the political role of women in the briefings, the existing discursive patterns support a dependency paradigm which makes the progress of women to be imposed by outside forces instead of being self-directed.