BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq’s state minister for women’s affairs has quit to protest a lack of resources for a daunting task – improving the lives of “a full army of widows” and other women left poor or abandoned by war.

In an interview Sunday with The Associated Press, Nawal al-Samarraie described how her office’s budget was so tight that she often found herself dipping into her own pockets for the women who came begging for help.

She said she finally submitted her resignation last week in part because her budget was slashed from $7,500 to $1,500 per month – part of overall government spending cuts forced by plunging oil prices. The figure didn’t include staff salaries.

Al-Samarraie’s resignation has cast a spotlight on the overwhelming problems facing Iraqi women, tens of thousands of them left poor or widowed by war.

An untold number have lost their husbands or other male relatives to violence or detention since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, often leaving them alone with children and virtually no safety net or job opportunities.

Al-Samarraie claimed Iraq has 3 million widows, calling it “a full army of widows, most of them not educated.” The figure, which she said came from a government survey, includes those who lost their husbands under Saddam Hussein’s regime and was impossible to verify