[Mb-civic] Iraq must reject a constitution that enslaves women

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

The Independent - 15 August 2005
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article305879.ece

Iraq must reject a constitution that enslaves women

Islamic terrorism is killing and injuring Iraqi women daily,
employing, among other weapons, acid attacks

by Houzan Mahmoud

Today is the deadline for Iraq's ruling political classes to agree a
brand new "constitution" for the country - but don't be deceived, this is
likely to be nothing but another false dawn for Iraq's women. Much of the
debate over the constitution's main articles has centred on the degree to
which Islam will be the source for future laws in Iraq. This spells
disaster for Iraq's women, and represents a cave-in to the terrorist
Islamist groups who are "committing crimes against humanity" on an almost
daily basis, in the words of Amnesty International.

The constitution's drafting committee, like Iraq's legislative assembly,
is dominated by religious, ethnic and tribal figures. Committee members
have been pushing for Islamic Sharia law to be the sole source of the
constitution and there is strong resistance to the incorporation of any
human rights standards that are seen as usurping Islamic legal supremacy.

By all accounts, the finished document is going to reflect the growing
forced Islamisization of Iraqi life, as the poison of Islamic groups
spreads into the mainstream. Supposedly moderate politicians are
disastrously disinclined to challenge the increasingly powerful Islamist
factions that now hold sway in almost every quarter of post-occupation
Iraq.

Whether Sunni or Shia; in the current government or in opposition;
affiliated directly to al-Qa'ida or to the Jordanian fanatic Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, or are former Baathists who "freelance" as so-called
"resistance fighters", what unites Iraq's armed Islamists is a fierce
hatred of women that rivals their hatred for US and British "invaders",
foreign "infidels" and other assorted enemies.

Across the country, a steady clampdown on women's rights has been going
unreported and unchecked by the government. Islamic terrorism is killing
and injuring Iraqi women daily, employing among other weapons, acid
attacks.

My women's rights group, the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, has
been documenting part of the upsurge in violence against women. In March
this year, for example, followers of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
targeted an outing of students from Basra University. Playing football and
listening to music, the mixed group was attacked in Basra Public Park. One
male student was killed trying to defend his female friends against
Islamists who literally tore the women's clothes off their bodies. Sadr's
men photographed the dishevelled, half-dressed women, and told them that
their parents would receive the photos if they didn't refrain in future
from "immoral" behaviour.

More widely, professional women have been deliberately targeted and
killed - notably in the city of Mosul - and, recently, anti-women
Islamists in Baghdad have taken to throwing acid in women's faces and on
to their uncovered legs.

So-called "honour killings" are rife, as is the kidnapping and rape of
women. Beheadings have occurred and women have been sold into sexual
servitude. When I was in Baghdad a few months ago, I couldn't go anywhere
without a bodyguard. The sense of danger and threat was tangible.

Islamist repression against women is a campaign of "moral" terror.
Leaflets, graffiti and verbal warnings in their thousands warn women
against going out unveiled, against putting on make-up, and against
shaking hands or mixing with men. Female doctors have been prevented
from treating male patients, and male doctors warned not to attend to
women.

This is a recipe for future gender enslavement, second-class citizenship
and ignorance. Thousands of female university students have now given up
their studies to protect themselves against Islamist threats.

Islamist hostility is contagious and echoed daily in high-level
political debate. Currently there is a drive over the "right" of men to
have four wives, to make divorce a male preserve and for custody of
children to be given to men only. Even women on Iraq's National Assembly -
the country's parliament - have been calling for resolutions to allow for
the beating of women by their guardians (males relatives, such as husbands
or fathers).

This is all the outcome of the occupation of Iraq. This has been pursued
under the name of liberation, but what we actually see is women
increasingly losing their freedom, while political Islamists feel free to
terrorise them. The Islamicists pour into this invaded, so-called Muslim
land in order, they say, to liberate it; but in reality, neither the US
nor the Islamists are our liberators. They both really fight for power and
influence in Iraq and in the region.

The January so-called election and today's constitution are all part of
the same procedure, which is to legitimate the current installed
government in Iraq. It is only in an atmosphere of occupation and terror,
they can push their reactionary ideas forward.

The constitution is set to add to a growing fearfulness among Iraqi
women, as their rights are passed over or signed away to Islamists
hostile to Iraq's entire female population. Women in Iraq face being
dragged back into the dark ages. We need to stop this tragedy before
it's too late. A constitution based on enslaving women, religious
sectarianism, and tribalism must be rejected.

[The writer is the UK Head of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq
and co-founder of the Iraq Freedom Congress.]


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