National NOW Times >> Summer/Fall 2005 >> Article

Iraqi Women Should Think Twice Before Accepting Constitution

By Jan Erickson, Government Relations Director

National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy said the women of Iraq will lose hard-won rights under the new constitution, and the U.S. will share the blame for trading away women's rights.

"Iraqi women will have far fewer rights under this constitution than they have enjoyed for decades, and for this reason all Iraqi women should pause to consider whether they will vote for it," Gandy urged in August. "Adoption of this constitution will likely result in the loss of rights gained over past decades. Conservative Sharia law as the basis for the country's family law system threatens to send Iraqi women back to the Middle Ages."

The draft of the constitution was adopted by the Iraqi parliament on Aug. 28 and will go to a general referendum for ratification by the voters on Oct. 15. Close observers have said that pressure from U.S. advisers needing a public relations win — combined with a power grab by hard-line Shiites — resulted in the 'compromise' that incorporates Islam as a main source of law.

"The U.S. failed to live up to its promise of protecting women's rights in Iraq," Gandy charged. "Despite what George W. Bush may be claiming, women cannot be assured equality by constitutional language that is vague and contradictory."

Iraqi Women Leaders Object

The constitution acknowledges the equal rights of women with men in all fields, but only if these do not contradict the principles of Sharia. Numerous Iraqi women's groups carried on an extensive lobbying campaign to express their objections to language in the chapter on 'Duties and Rights' in which the strict principles of Sharia have been stated as the prime source of legislation.

Women leaders in Iraq and elsewhere fear laws that would support or impose practices like those in Iraq's neighboring country, Iran. These include death by stoning for adulterers and severing the hands of thieves. Women who are raped can be accused of adultery and severely punished or killed unless there are male witnesses to the rape who are willing to testify.

Interviewed recently on the U.S. radio show "Democracy Now," Yanar Mohammed, Chair of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, said the constitution's drafters have "agreed to dividing Iraq upon ethnic and religious lines, and they have decided to make women second-rate citizens."

Safia Souhail, Iraq's ambassador to Egypt, told Reuters News Agency that human rights should not be linked to Islamic Sharia law at all. Souhail, a prominent women's rights advocate, noted that wording in the constitution granting each religious sect the right to run its own court — apparently doing away with previous civil codes — could introduce restrictive Islamic laws into the legal system. The ambassador added that a "united civil code is central to the modern state."

Old Iraqi Laws More Progressive

Compared to the rights of women in nearly all other Muslim countries, the women of Iraq have enjoyed a higher degree of equality and freedom, according to an analysis by Human Rights Watch. The 1970 Iraqi Provisional Constitution declared women and men equal under the law. Other laws assured that women could attain higher education, hold jobs, be paid the same as men and be protected from exploitation and sexual harassment in the workplace.

However, during the 1991 Gulf War, women's rights began to erode as the economy worsened due to U.N. economic sanctions. Many women lost their jobs, abandoned their education, and women's literacy declined. Rape and sexual assaults against women increased and, often, police failed to properly investigate such crimes.

Now, under the interim Iraqi constitution, divorce laws are balanced; women have a legal right to hold property and receive inheritance. Women receive six months paid maternity leave and can choose an additional six months of unpaid maternity leave — a policy more progressive than in the United States. Women currently hold a third of the seats in parliament, giving Iraqi women more representation than many other countries in the world, including the U.S. But Iraqi women leaders fear the loss of this status under the new draft constitution.

Sharia Anti-Women?

Critics say that Sharia law is inherently misogynistic: In some sects, divorce is easy for men who are allowed multiple wives, and custody of children goes to the father. A conservative dress code requires many women to cover most or all of their bodies; women may be restricted to the home and are frequently not allowed to speak to men other than relatives. Women are not allowed to be clergy or religious scholars and may be restricted from certain jobs where they might come into contact with men.

Worst of all, most interpretations of Sharia law allow beating of "disobedient" wives. This permission has led to the practice in many Muslim cultures of so-called honor killings where women are beaten or murdered if the family believes that the woman has 'dishonored' the family with an extramarital affair.

Hypocrisy on Women's Rights

Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S., Zalmay Khalilzad, who played a central role in brokering a consensus on the constitution, was criticized for trading away women's rights and caving into pressure from political Shiite leaders. The ambassador said previously that there would be "no compromise" on the inclusion of women's rights in the constitution. Khalilzad, a Kurd, called the constitution a "very good" draft that guarantees rights for all. But Peter Galbraith, a U.S. adviser to the Kurds, criticized the Bush administration's "hypocrisy" on the issue of women's rights, according to the Washington Post.

In television interviews, Khalilzad has said that persons will be free to have family matters, such as divorce and inheritance, decided by religious or civil courts. Women's rights advocates warn, however, that the more powerful marital partner — usually male — could make that determination and choose a court that will rule according to his best interests. Religious courts run by Islamic clerics would most often rule against women.

George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice claim that U.S. efforts in Iraq will help liberate Iraqi women and that the U.S. will insist on constitutional guarantees of women's rights. At a White House function for 250 women from around the world on International Women's Day, Bush said, "The advance of women's rights and the advance of liberty are ultimately inseparable." Rice told the Washington Post on Aug. 16 that there must be a guarantee of women's rights, adding, "We've been very clear that a modern Iraq will be an Iraq in which women are recognized as full and equal citizens."

"This proposed constitution falls short of providing women full rights," said Gandy, "which will prevent Iraq from becoming a true democracy."

"The women of Iraq must explicitly be guaranteed equality in the new constitution — not as afterthoughts in a bill of rights that may or may not be written at some point in the future," Gandy said. "Without a clear statement in this document now, women's human rights will continue to be bargained away."