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Reports From Iraq > Mon., Mar. 8, 2004
The Authors of Iraq's New "Constitution"
Under Iraq's new interim constitution teenagers like those
at Arbil's Sheelan Intermediate School won't be governed
by strict Islamic family law, but they will be governed
by family law imposed by Saddam Hussein. |
ARBIL, IRAQ-- Even Ahmed Chalabi knows today's constitutional
signing ceremony isn't the real deal. The head of the Iraqi
National Congress -- who was airlifted to Baghdad by the US
military last April -- is the same man who fled Jordan in
the trunk of a car after being convicted of stealing $350
million from that country's national bank. Now his signature
is on Iraq's new governing document -- along with two dozen
others hand-picked by the Bush Administration.
"You can't really call this a constitution," Chalabi
told Saudi-based al-Arabia television shortly after he signed
on the dotted line. "It's more like an emergency law.
There was not an election. After the election there will be
a constitution."
The document doesn't say when national elections will be
held, but it does set down rules for how Iraq should be governed
during the interim.
Regarding women, for example, the document keeps the status
quo in place. That is, the laws will be the same as those
imposed by Saddam Hussein.
"When a woman wants to divorce her husband it was controlled
by the government, by the brothers and the fathers" recalls
Sharkria Hamadamien, General Secretary of the Kurdistan Women's
Union. "Sometimes when women wanted to marry they were
not able to say they wanted. It was controlled by their father
and sometimes even by the courts. Sometimes a judge would
as for their father and still now its very difficult to speak
about this."
Hamadamien's view is shared by the organization Human Rights
Watch which this week slammed the interim Constitution for
denying women equal rights to inherit, divorce and marry.
The international media has largely praised the authors
of the document for scrapping provisions what would have replaced
Saddam's laws with strict interpretations of Islamic family
law and for including blanket statements guaranteeing equal
treatment for all, but Human Rights Watch notes the constitution
"does not specifically guarantee equality between men
and women in .. critical areas where women in the Middle East
have historically suffered discrimination."
"We are so happy that they decided to eliminate Sharia
law for the family," says Hamadamien."It was a big
victory. But we have to realize that women living day by day
in Iraq are still suffering."
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