[WCUSP] Fw: Iraqi Women Resist Return to Sectarian Laws

[Libby or Mort Frank]

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Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 10:04 PM
Subject: Iraqi Women Resist Return to Sectarian Laws


> IRAQ: Women Resist Return to Sectarian Laws
> 
> By Ellen Massey
> 
> June 25, 2007, Inter Press Service
> 
> http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38304
> 
> WASHINGTON - As Iraq struggles to define its future, there is
> one important group that has been largely left out of the
> process: women.
> 
> But they are refusing to be left behind. With little
> international support or media attention, a network of more
> than 150 women's organisations across Iraq is fighting to
> preserve their rights in the new constitutional revision
> process.
> 
> As part of a campaign to garner international support, the
> Iraq Women's Movement sent a letter in May to U.S. Speaker of
> the House Nancy Pelosi and another to U.N. Secretary-General
> Ban Ki-moon expressing concern over the constitutional review
> process taking place and calling for international support for
> their effort to preserve women's rights in Iraqi law.
> 
> 'As women face escalating violence and exclusion in Iraq, they
> have been marginalised in reconciliation initiatives and
> negotiations for government positions,' the letter noted.
> 
> 'Even with the shy and insignificant pressure exerted by the
> U.N. and other international donors/players on the Iraqi
> government and politicians to fulfill minimum obligations of
> Security Council Resolution 1325, the action taken has been a
> sequence of disappointments'
> 
> Passed in 2000, Resolution 1325 emphasises the importance of
> women's participation in conflict resolution and peace-
> building processes. A second resolution, 1483, applies this
> conviction specifically to Iraq.
> 
> More than three years ago, the United States was instrumental
> in overturning an amendment to the interim constitution that
> would have lifted protections for women and children. U.S. and
> international pressure, and Iraqi women who took to the
> streets, succeeded in defeating the provision, which was
> contradictory to many other parts of the constitution.
> 
> Following that triumph, women turned out in record numbers for
> the 2005 election. They secured 33 percent of the seats in the
> National Assembly but remain woefully absent from other
> influential branches of the government, according to a 2006
> report from the Iraq Legal Development Project.
> 
> The effectiveness of previous international pressure has
> spurred the women's movement in Iraq to call the world's
> attention to this issue once again, but there has been little
> acknowledgement of their effort so far. The office of the U.N.
> secretary-general has released only a very general statement
> about the review process since the Iraqi Women's Movement sent
> their letter on May 21. Pelosi's office has not yet recognised
> the letter publicly.
> 
> Hanaa Edwar is a leader of the Iraqi Women's Movement and
> founder of the Iraqi Al-Amal Association, a national civil
> society group based in Baghdad. She is campaigning against
> Article 41, a provision buried in the text of the draft
> constitution that places personal status laws under the
> influence of religion, sect or belief. These are the laws that
> administer marriage, divorce, inheritance, child custody and
> how religious courts settle disputes among Muslims, Christians
> and Jews.
> 
> But 'there is no unity across sects or even within sects' on
> the rules that govern family and women's status, Edwar noted.
> 
> Warning that the current language could 'deepen the sectarian
> issues in this society', Edwar added: 'We feel that this is
> not a women's demand, it is a national demand. This is
> important for national security.'
> 
> 'National security' is a term that the U.S. Congress knows
> well, and the Iraqi women appealed to the issues that are
> keystones of U.S. policy in the Middle East. Their letter to
> Pelosi asks for 'help in preventing Iraq from taking the
> identity of a Religious State,' and includes a reminder that,
> 'any destabilisation in the state of law, economy and security
> in Iraq can reflect on the security and stability of the whole
> region.'
> 
> Mary Trotochaud, an activist who has worked both on the ground
> in Iraq and with lawmakers in Washington, told IPS that, 'This
> movement originates from three generations of women who had
> really strong rights.'
> 
> Iraq's progressive women's rights laws began when the
> 'personal status laws' were included in the 1959 Constitution.
> In 1970, women were formally guaranteed equal rights and
> additional laws ensured their right to vote, attend school,
> run for office and own property.
> 
> Iraq has also ratified a series of international treaties that
> guarantee equal rights for all, including the International
> Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social
> and Cultural Rights that protect the pluralistic nature of
> Iraqi society and offer unprecedented protections to women in
> an Arab country.
> 
> Yet Iraqi women still faced considerable historical obstacles
> to their political participation, including Ba'ath policies
> that disenfranchised them and Saddam Hussein's strengthening
> of Islamic and tribal traditions in an effort to consolidate
> power in the 1990s.
> 
> 'These are human rights issues that we're talking about that
> we should be advocating all the time in all countries,'
> Trotochaud said. 'We shouldn't be shy about saying that.'
> 
> The most recent campaign to preserve these rights began in
> 2003 in the wake of Hussein's fall and the dissolution of
> Iraq's existing legal, political and economic systems. Women's
> groups began springing up around the country and organising to
> advocate for their rights and participation in the new
> constitution and government.
> 
> The network of groups held regional and national meetings and
> met with parliamentarians and officials across sect and party
> lines. 'When the time for constitutional conventions came,
> women were already organised,' said Trotochaud, who was living
> in Iraq at the time.
> 
> However, the spiraling violence has taken its toll on the
> campaign. 'The sectarian divide has gotten big enough that
> people who have worked together in the past don't work
> together now,' she added.
> 
> The constitutional review process has laboured on for the past
> six months with few signs of progress. Debate remains bogged
> down in issues like the disposition of Kirkuk, an oil-rich
> city in the northern, Kurdish-dominated region; the
> distribution of national wealth; and de-Baathification.
> 
> Article 41, which places family law under religious and tribal
> traditions, is still in the drafts of the constitution and
> women's rights in the process remain a backstage issue.
> 
> Edwar said that the Constitutional Review Committee has been
> granted another month to complete its work. Refusing to be
> discouraged by the lack of international attention, she looks
> at the delay as an opportunity to advance the movement's goals
> of ensuring that women's rights and family law will be
> included in her country's new constitution and that civil
> society will be a part of the process.
> 
> The Iraqi Women's Movement has submitted its own language to
> the review committee for consideration to replace the
> objectionable Article 41. It says that, 'The Iraqi state
> should ensure that personal status laws should be organised
> according to law.' Edwar said they were often met with support
> for the Movement's appeal but that 'women's issues are one of
> the compromise issues among politicians.'
> 
> There is likely little that will stop the political
> maneuvering in the run-up to the referendum on the new
> constitution. But Edwar made clear that the Iraqi Women's
> Movement will continue its campaign to preserve human rights
> until the very last moment and she represents a political
> force that will keep women's rights on the political agenda
> for years to come.
> 
> As stated in their letter to Pelosi, 'Our hopes in our nation
> are big, but our trust in our women's resilience has no
> boundaries.'
> 
> Copyright (c) 2007 IPS-Inter Press Service
> 
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