Dangerous Times for Iraqi Women

In light of Stellar's post on the rights of Indian women, I did some research on the rights of Iraqi women. Its an important time as the new Iraqi constitution is being drafted right now and many women's rights activists fear that it will reduce women's rights.

Whatever your opinion on the war in Iraq, everyone can agree that at this point the safety and security of the Iraqi people is what is important now. We are there- rightly or wrongly

- and now is the time to help Iraq emerge from its painful past and into a hopeful future.

You only have to look at the news reports coming out of Iraq to see that it won’t be easy. If you join the new Iraqi police force or army, you’re a target for insurgents. If you go to the market or travel through a checkpoint, you’re just as vulnerable. And if you allow your kids to take candy from American soldiers, you run the risk of watching them killed before your eyes.

Being a woman in Iraq is not easy - and it could get much harder in the near future.

To pre-empt any comments to the effect “you bleeding heart fem-nazis loved Saddam and hate our troops,” let me say that I am so unbelievably glad that Saddam is gone. He was a brutal, murderous tyrant who - along with his unimaginably cruel sons - subjected his people to years of suffering. As the State Department’s website points out, as a woman in Saddam’s Iraq, you would have faced:

Beheading. Under the pretext of fighting prostitution, units of "Fedayeen Saddam" (the paramilitary organization led by Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son) beheaded in public more than 200 women, dumping their severed heads at their families' doorsteps.

Rape. The regime used rape and sexual assault of women to: Extract information and forced confessions from detained family members; Intimidate members of the opposition by sending them videotapes of the rape of female family members; and Blackmail Iraqi men into future cooperation with the regime.

Torture. Saddam Hussein's thugs routinely tortured and killed female dissidents and the female relatives of Iraqi oppositionists and defectors. Children were imprisoned if they or their parents were not viewed to be faithful supporters of the Saddam regime.

Murder. In 1990, Saddam Hussein introduced Article 111 into the Iraqi Penal Code. This law exempted men from any kind of punishment if they kill their female relatives in defense of their family's honor.

(source www.state.gov/g/wi/c8973.htm)

Living in a democracy should allow Iraqi women a real chance at freedom and give them the oppurtunity to get involved in their government in a meaningful way. However, as with many things in Iraq today, things have not gone to plan.

Earlier this month, IRIN News reported that women in Baghdad and the province of Anbar are increasingly becoming the victims of acid attacks if they don’t wear the black abaya, a long black garment that covers most of the body. The Feminist Majority Foundation recounts the experiences of some of the woman affected.

Hania Abdul-Jabbar, a university student, had acid thrown on her face and legs by three men for not wearing the veil out in public. “They cut all my hair off while hitting me in the face many times, telling me it’s the price for not obeying God’s wish in using the veil,” according to IRIN News. Today Abdul-Jabbar is blind in one eye, and her face is completely deformed due to the acid attack.

Since Hussein’s removal in 2003, at least five women have been killed in Anbar for not obeying orders by religious extremists to wear the veil and women continue to be threatened today, IRIN News reports. Despite such threats, many Iraqi women refuse to be intimidated by religious extremists.

Hiba Zuheir, who is 24 years old, explained, “I won’t force myself to use something that I don’t feel comfortable with. Women in Iraq are losing their place in society and we have to fight that and determine who we are and how we should dress, despite these dangers,” according to IRIN News.

(source www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=9145)

We could write these incidents of as the actions of extremists who wish to limit women’s freedoms by intimidating them into submissiveness. However, when drafts for the new Iraqi constitution started leaking out, it become harder to believe that women’s rights are taking a high priority in Iraq.

At the moment, the interim constitution is still in effect and guarantees that women will occupy 25% of the seats in the National Assembly. Thanks to this measure, 31% of the seats went to female candidates during the elections. But the new draft indicates that this provision will be withdrawn, prompting many to fear that the female voice will be drowned out.

In addition to this, the new constitutions only guarantees equal rights for women as long as these rights do not "violate Shariah," or Koranic law. For the past forty years, Iraq's civil code has had legal protections for women. For example, it prohibited marriage below the age of 18, arbitrary divorce, and polygamy. Women's rights advocates argue that moving these laws under Islamic law will destroy the status of Iraqi women's rights regarding marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child custody rights. In February Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) expressed concern that a US backed regime could wind the clock back on women’s legal rights even further than Saddam’s awful regime if the proposed drafts become law.

One of the critical passages is in Article 14 of the chapter, a sweeping measure that would require court cases dealing with matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance to be judged according to the law practiced by the family's sect or religion.

Under that measure, Shiite women in Iraq, no matter what their age, generally could not marry without their families' permission. Under some interpretations of Shariah, men could attain a divorce simply by stating their intention three times in their wives' presence.

Article 14 would replace a body of Iraqi law that has for decades been considered one of the most progressive in the Middle East in protecting the rights of women, giving them the freedom to choose a husband and requiring divorce cases to be decided by a judge.
…

Critics of the draft proposal say that in addition to restricting women's rights, it could also deepen the sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shiites. The draft also does not make clear what would happen in cases where the husband is from one sect and the wife from another.

Religious Shiite politicians tried once before, in December 2003, to abolish the 1959 law. As is happening now, women's groups and secular female politicians took to the streets.

(source New York Times)

I understand that Iraq is a dangerous, difficult place to try and create a functioning democracy right now. Politicians are doing their best to prevent people getting blown to pieces and that is no easy task with an insurgency hell bent on sabotaging Iraq’s progress. However, as Hillary Clinton said in her famous speech in Beijing, "...women's rights are human rights--and human rights are women's rights." The Iraqi government must ensure that no woman is discriminated against because of biology.

And if America and Britain truly do care about the human rights of the Iraqi people they will pressure the Iraqi government to give women equal rights in Iraq.