PORTRAIT OF A COFFEE HOUSE: People engage in conversation, for it is there that news is communicated and where those interested in politics criticize the government in all freedom and without being fearful, since the government does not heed what the people say. {Jean Chardin, 17th Century French Traveller}

02 December 2010

Women's Rights in Iraq: Before and After Saddam

As a follow-up to a previous post concerning the status of women in Iraq, in particular the issue of the prevalence of sex trafficking of refugees and rape victims, I would like to write a bit concerning the context of women's rights in Iraq before and after the 2003 invasion, the deterioration of their rights under the current Iraqi government, and increased discrimination and even targeted killings women in Iraq face today. One can tie the changing rights of women not simply to changes in political ideology and government, but also to the stricter interpretation of Islam more conservative elements of different sects in Iraq who are trying to push their agenda to limit womens' freedom of expression, education, civic participation, employment, and enforce conservative dress codes.

A certain myth has been circulating that women's rights under Saddam Hussein were greater than what's currently happening in Iraq today and this generalisation is often taken for granted. In reality, women's rights under Saddam had a mixed track record and was based primarily on political and economic expediency. According to a report by Codepink Women for Peace:
Although a great deal of policy and law continued to women’s advantage when Saddam Hussein became president, his voracious appetite for dictatorial power over the entire population could not but undermine women’s gains. Women, like men, were jailed, tortured, raped, and murdered. To extract information from dissidents, suspected dissidents, and opposition members abroad, Hussein was fond of sending them video tapes showing their female relatives raped by members of the secret police. The war with Iran subjected Iraqis not only to the deprivations of war but also to gross human rights violations inflicted by their own government. Women were targets for rape and sex trafficking because of their relationship to male oppositionist activists; thousands of women, children and men were expelled because of their actual or alleged Iranian descent; tens of thousands of Kurds disappeared, and the Iraqi government used chemical weapons against thousands of Kurds.
In 1959, Iraq passed a Personal Status Law whereby Sha'ria courts were replaced by government-run 'personal status' courts that passed judgment based on then-new codified state law.  These laws restricted child marriage, banned forced marriages, restricted polygamy, curtailed men's prerogatives in divorce, expanded women’s rights in divorce, extended child custody to mothers, and improved inheritance rights for women (Heinrich Böll Foundation). The Heinrich Böll Foundation notes: "It remains one of the most liberal laws in the Arab world with respect to women’s rights. Moreover, by eliminating the differential treatment of Sunnis and Shiites under the law, it does not differentiate between the various religious communities and thus sustains social and communal coexistence."

The Iraqi Provisional Constitution of 1970 guaranteed equal rights to women and, according to Human Rights Watch, other laws specifically ensured women's rights to vote, attend school, run for political office, and own property. The new post-Saddam constitution ratified in 2005 guarantees the same equal rights to women, however, a significant problem exists in Article 2 where "First: Islam is the official religion and foundation for legislation. (a) No law may be enacted that contradicts the established provisions of Islam. (b) No law may be enacted that contradicts the principals of democracy. (c) No law may be enacted that contradicts the rights and basic freedoms as stipulated in this Constitution" (Global Justice Project: Iraq).

The problem with this specific article is that interpretations of Islam run the gamut from liberal to conservative, from metaphorical to literal. Additionally, who speaks for Islam? Unlike, for example Catholicism, where a hierarchical religious body exists to hand down judgments on interpretations for moral codes of behavior and religious issues no such unified hierarchy exists in Islam given the division of views by various sects. It would be like attempting to unite various sects of Christianity that originally broke off from the papacy and having them agree to moral regulations concerning, say, marriage for the priesthood or the issue of making women priests. To make Islam the "foundation for legislation" was a huge constitutional mishap, especially in regards to the norms (and potentially laws) regulating the behavior of women in society. Sections B and C of the Constitution appear to have been remedial points to the Article, however, since the ratification of the 2005 constitution the original 1959 Personal Status laws which granted women a lot more legal guarantees than they would have normally had in an Islamic society are now in jeopardy.

As an aside, I am not critiquing Islam as a backwards religion. When Muhammad first recited the Quran in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century AD what the Quran provided was considered revolutionary, radical, and far ahead of its time. Consider that Muhammad provided rights to women that never existed before, made female infanticide a sin, provided divorced women with maintenance, widows and children with protections, and declared that men and women are equal before God. What I am critiquing is making any religion the foundation for state legislation for the reason that what religious texts provide as moral and social guidance are in danger of skewed or politically-interested interpretation depending on who is making and interpreting the law. I am not in contention with the following point: Muhammad was a feminist. The feminism of the 7th century AD, however, is not the feminism of 21st century. Moreover, depending on how enlightened or literalist Sha'ria judges will be, what sect, region, or the varying levels of conservatism in different communities in Iraq, matters for women could take a downturn since judgments and interpretations of religious law are unlikely to be consistent across the country. Faced with more conservative judges women could meet obstacles going to the courts to get judgments in their favour.

Today, women in Iraq currently are constantly under threat of being targeted for killings, rape, or kidnappings to be sold into sex trafficking rings. An article by CNN published in 2007 states:
According to a United Nations report, the kidnapping, rape and murder of women is on the rise. Honor killings, or the killing of a woman who brought perceived dishonor to her family, is up also. Women -- Muslims and non-Muslims alike -- are warned to adhere to the strict dress code, the United Nations said.

"You go to the Baghdad morgue, and you find a big number of women who are headless; they have been beheaded, they have been tortured and killed, and this is usually the case in honor killing," [Iraqi feminist Yanar] Mohammed said. "Nobody can speak about democracy if women are being killed for honor." She added that the current laws in Iraq do not punish the men who carry out honor killings.
More conservative and ignorant elements in Iraqi society are also lending to violence against women to enforce 'morality.' CNN published another article in 2008 highlighting that in Basra 79 women were targeted for killings due to violations of Islamic teachings.
One glance through the police file is enough to understand the consequences. Basra's police chief, Gen. Abdul Jalil Khalaf, flips through the file, pointing to one unsolved case after another.

"I think so far, we have been unable to tackle this problem properly," he says. "There are many motives for these crimes and parties involved in killing women, by strangling, beheading, chopping off their hands, legs, heads."

"When I came to Basra a year ago," he says, "two women were killed in front of their kids. Their blood was flowing in front of their kids, they were crying. Another woman was killed in front of her 6-year-old son, another in front of her 11-year-old child, and yet another who was pregnant."

The killers enforcing their own version of Islamic justice are rarely caught, while women live in fear.

Boldly splattered in red paint just outside the main downtown market, a chilling sign reads: "We warn against not wearing a headscarf and wearing makeup. Those who do not abide by this will be punished. God is our witness, we have notified you."

The attacks on the women of Basra have intensified since British forces withdrew to their base at the airport back in September, police say. Iraqi security forces took over after British troops pulled back, but are heavily infiltrated by militias.

And tracking the perpetrators of these crimes is nearly impossible, Khalaf says, adding that he doesn't have control of the thousands of policemen and officers.
BBC News went on to label the situation for women in Iraq as a 'National Crisis.' More recently, Al-Jazeera reported that women's rights in Iraq are 'in danger', and detailed the daily struggle women faced to protect themselves from violence, especially the most vulnerable being those whose husbands were arrested by occupation forces: "...many women also fled their homes because their husbands were arbitrarily arrested by occupation forces or government security personnel. A household without a male figure became far more vulnerable since 2003. Women sought refuge with relatives and failing to do so fled to Syria or Jordan." In Syria and Jordan, these women having no alternative work become the victims of local pimps and faced with the shame of their reality are unable to return home lest they may become victims of honor killings due to cultural pressures if their families are conservative.

Of course, time will tell how women's rights in Iraq will unfold. High levels of insecurity and instability throughout the country is currently making it difficult for women to even organize or consider these issues. However, some women, such as Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed, are outspoken in regards to the status of women in Iraq post-US invasion. Mohammed founded the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq. As mentioned in a previous blog post, Mohammed's organisation and international women's rights NGO, MADRE, are operating underground safehouses to protect women from sex trafficking and violence in Iraq.

If the status of women is the indicator of a country's political and economic stability, Iraq is doing poorly.   Hopefully, in the future, more women like Mohammed will have the courage to express their views openly, fight for their rights, keep the Personal Status laws in place, and pressure the government into providing women greater protections. The future of Iraq will depend on its women.

1 comment:

  1. Moses, of course, was not a feminist. Even though his laws came 1500 years before Mohammed he is a teacher to the Big Bad West...

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