Fighting to Preserve Women's Rights in
By Alissa J. Rubin and Asmaa Waguih Special to The Times Sun Aug 7,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050807/ts_latimes/fightingtopreservewomensrightsiniraq (Comments in RED are Mine)
Today, few Iraqi women would dare to wear such an outfit. Most cover their arms to the wrist. Only wisps of hair stray from their head scarves. Skirts are often nearly ankle-length.
Shiite Islamic parties in the country, with the tacit acceptance of millions of devout women, are pushing hard to substitute Islamic law, or Sharia, for the civil law that now governs such areas of life as marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. A draft of the constitution published Saturday in the newspaper of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in
Although most fights over the constitution divide Iraqis along sectarian and ethnic lines, the question of women's rights reveals one more major fault line in the country's politics. "There is a conflict between secularism and religion in drafting the new constitution," said Najla Ubeidi, a lawyer and a member of the Iraqi Women's League, one of the oldest women's groups in the country. Ubeidi, like many others, sees the constitution as a struggle for
"During the 1960s, there was a real belief in improving women's conditions," Ubeidi said. "We could wear what we liked, go out when we liked, return home when we liked, and people would judge us by the way we behaved."
The Iraqi government's treatment of women improved sharply in 1959 with the passage of its "personal status" law, which melded principles of Sharia with Western legal approaches to family issues. When the Baath Party and later Saddam Hussein came to power, they left the law intact, and despite the atrocities of his regime, Hussein backed strong roles for women in government and embraced a secular state. By the 1990s, Hussein had begun to reduce women's roles and rely more on religious rhetoric, but women still retained their civil rights.
A Religious Tide
Since the
Although few women would sanction such attacks, many do accept the primacy of religious law over secular law. Iraqi women's views on Sharia are complex and diverse, with many educated, religious Shiite women supporting Sharia first. If women work in Islamic organizations or are involved in politics through Islamic parties, their loyalty is first to Islamic politics, long suppressed by Hussein, and then to women.
Even women's rights activists acknowledge that the vast majority of Iraqi women, especially those living outside
For them, Sharia offered certainty in an uncertain time. "I much prefer the Sharia for personal issues," said Salama Khafaji, a member of the new National Assembly. "I am very afraid of language saying men and women are equal: What would that mean when it came to the custody of children? A woman wants to bring up her own children even if her husband divorces her." Khafaji added that if a woman wanted to be sure of her rights in marriage and divorce, she should make her demands part of the marriage contract a practice permitted under Sharia. But not all families or all clerics would necessarily accede to a woman's demands.
For secular women, and there are many of them, the idea of being governed by clerics is unimaginable. "We seek a civil constitution that separates the role of law from religion and one that doesn't interfere in the private affairs of the people," said Hanna Edward, head of the Iraqi Al Amal Assn., a human rights and women's rights group.
In the last month, women's groups, spearheaded by activists who spent years in the secular Kurdish
Notably missing from the list of people with whom they have met are any leading Shiites. "They say they are busy or traveling outside the country," said Shirok Abbayachi, a civil engineer who returned to
Entrenched Customs
Working against them are conservative customs, which if anything have become more entrenched since the
Girls, even from secular families, rarely spend even a night outside their home until they marry, and they rarely marry without their families' explicit blessing. Girls are very conscious of maintaining the family reputation, and even for educated women the trajectory is regimented: By the time a woman graduates from college, she is likely to be engaged or will be soon thereafter. "Now the hijab is a uniform, not because women want it, but because they are scared not to wear it," said Edward, a petite, intense woman who goes about without a head scarf and is often seen dashing around her downtown office with a cellphone glued to one ear and a land-line phone to the other. She and other activists want those writing the constitution to focus on three clauses in one draft version of the charter:
The substitution of Sharia for the current civil law on "personal status" matters that is, marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. The language in one draft would allow each person to choose to have their case handled in Shiite, Sunni or Christian court. It is unclear whether there would even be a civil court option. On inheritance, religious law is particularly punitive to women, awarding a sister at most half the amount her brothers would get.
The mandate that the state develop the status of the tribes "and benefit from their values and
traditions that do not go against religious principles." The vast majority of families in
The elimination of the 25% quota for the number of women in the National Assembly. The transitional administrative law requires that not less than 25% of the representatives be women. An early version of the constitution would have eliminated that quota after two terms, all but guaranteeing that women would hold fewer seats, because it is unlikely political parties would include that many women on their slates of candidates. Despite the initially bleak prospects, the women's lobbying appears to be having an effect: The constitutional commission has already restored the 25% quota and has put no time limit on its duration, members of the constitutional committee say.
Safiya Souhail, one of several determined organizers, recently won permission to go into the cafeteria where members of the National Assembly eat lunch. She and several other women now walk the area daily, buttonholing lawmakers. If the draft of the constitution presented to the National Assembly slights women, she thinks she can count on Kurds, who are mostly secular, to vote for changes, as well as on members of the party of Iyad Allawi, the former interim prime minister with whom she met a few days ago. That is still not enough votes to win, but she and her colleagues plan to work right up to the deadline.
She listed the prominent figures she has met: President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd; Assembly Speaker Hachim Hassani, a Sunni; and Fouad Massoun, a leading member of the constitutional commission. "They all gave us their votes," she said. "Hachim Hassani said that as speaker he has to sign the final draft of the constitution, and he promised he will not sign unless our points are in it."
Rubin is a Times staff writer and Waguih a special correspondent.
Comments - Mine
First & foremost the Iraqi government has to introduce a law where by the law enforcement agencies of the country (Police, Army, Air Force, Navy etc) must have 50% representation from the women side. The protection of the territorial integrity & the interests of the country should take precedence over anybodys interest. Once this achieved women can talk about gender equality. Their rights will depend on the contribution that they make to the law enforcement agencies of the country.
On the contrary what is happening now is that it is the men who are mainly dying in their hundreds in attacks from the insurgents. On many occasions men who are queuing up at Army recruitment centers are blown up. We do not hear Iraqi women demanding that they should be given equal opportunities to fight the insurgents. Only what we hear from them is what will be their dress code, inheritance laws & so on in the new constitution.
Even in
Of course some psychologists may say that men & women cannot work together in the war front due to the obvious distraction. In that case we can have separate womens only brigades who will be operating independently in the war front.
It seems that the men have to shed their blood in the protection of a countrys interest & the women will enjoy the fruits of it.
AB
"For to us will be their return; then it will be for us to call them to account." (Holy Quran 88:25-26)
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