Last Sunday, just hours before Iraq’s Parliament extended the deadline for the new constitution, women’s rights advocates mounted an 11th-hour push to dilute the role of Islam and safeguard their freedoms.
They mobilised in Baghdad to steel liberal and secular members of the drafting committee for a showdown against religious conservatives.
With crucial parts of the draft still undecided, it is unclear whether Islamic law, or sharia, would override the civil law that governs areas such as marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance.
Shia clerics and politicians vowed to make Islam one of the main sources of law, moving Iraq closer to the theocracies of Iran and Saudi Arabia.
If they succeed, the consequences will be dire, said Yonadam Kanna, a Christian member of the drafting committee. ”For women, it would be a disaster.”
Female members of Parliament and NGOs lobbied potential allies at the convention centre in Baghdad’s green zone, a fortified complex hosting most of the negotiations.
A cluster formed around Wael Latif, a legal adviser to the constitutional committee, warning him that negotiators would not be forgiven if this generation of women ended up more oppressed than their mothers.
A 1959 law blending Western legal principles with sharia law gave Iraq one of the Middle East’s more enlightened attitudes to family issues. Saddam Hussein kept the law and women enjoyed a measure of equality — even during the 1990s when the secular dictator flirted with Islam.
Since the United States-led invasion in March 2003, however, conservative Shias, oppressed for decades under Hussein, have stoked a politically charged religious revival, which is especially strong in the south.
Even in the capital, it is now rare to see women in public without headscarves, or driving on their own.
Having triumphed in January’s elections, the conservative Shia parties have pushed for the new constitution to let religious courts handle marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance cases. Some negotiators have also sought the recognition of tribal justice and the elimination of the 25% quota for the minimum proportion of women in Parliament.
The largely secular Kurds and moderate Shias want Islam to be one source of law, rather than the main source. If they fail, it would be a humiliating setback for US President George W Bush, who has cited women’s equality as one of Washington’s objectives in Iraq.
However, many Iraqi women, especially in rural areas, favour sharia law, citing religious devotion and loyalty to leaders who braved Hussein’s persecution.
They also say sharia improves their marriage prospects because it allows husbands to have four wives and obliges them to provide for spouses and offspring.
Fatima Kadhim (30), a Baghdad doctor, approved of men inheriting at least twice as much as women because they had greater responsibilities. Kadhim even supported the right of husbands to beat disobedient wives. ”But only as a last resort,” she said. ”And it shouldn’t leave any marks on her body, otherwise he has to pay compensation.”
About 1 000 women held a rally in the southern city of Basra last Sunday to support sharia law, after dozens of women belonging to a liberal group with the opposite objective last week held a rally in Baghdad.
Yanar Mohammad, an outspoken liberal advocate, said she was braced for a constitution of misogyny and inequality. ”I am alarmed. It is not going to reflect the aspirations of women in the 21st century.”
The imposition of Islamic law would leave women vulnerable to political and domestic oppression, she said. ”Women could be stoned and beaten.”
A spokesperson for the conservative Shia Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said he was baffled by such warnings, saying the government had repeatedly pledged to uphold women’s rights.
A leading conservative cleric on the constitutional panel, Jalal al-Sagir, appeared tired of Western pressure over equality: ”That’s not our concern, it’s yours.” — Â