Congress Members Join NOW in Urging Bush
to Fight for Iraqi Women

Calls for Women's Rights Grow Louder as Vote Draws Near

October 13, 2005

With a vote on the draft of the Iraqi constitution imminent, 11 members of Congress are echoing the National Organization for Women's call urging the Bush administration to press Iraq about women's rights.

On Oct. 7, Rep. Carolyn Maloney and 10 members of Congress sent a letter to George W. Bush to explain their concerns about the potential for women's rights being diminished under the new Iraqi constitution.

"We continue to have serious concerns about the draft constitution's effect on the rights of Iraqi women," the letter read.

Since the preliminary stages of the document's drafting, NOW and other women's rights organizations have encouraged the U.S. government to work to ensure that rights for women are protected in the constitution.

Unfortunately, the draft that is up for a vote on Oct. 15 could move certain family matters, such as divorce, inheritance and marriage, from civil courts to religious courts, which tend to favor men over women. Other provisions in the constitution could lead to the Supreme Federal Court being dominated by religious clerics.

NOW 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. "Sharia law as the basis for the country's family law system threatens to send Iraqi women back to the Middle Ages."

Although Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have claimed that the U.S. will insist on constitutional guarantees of women's rights, observers have said that pressure from U.S. advisers needing a public relations win 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."

NOW joins Maloney and her colleagues in pressing this administration on a guarantee of women's rights.

"The women of Iraq must explicitly be guaranteed equality in the new constitution," Gandy said. "Without a clear statement in this document now, women's human rights will continue to be bargained away."

Read the letter (PDF file) to George Bush from members of Congress.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906

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