Womens Struggle for Freedom in Iraq

An empty sort of freedom

Saddam was no defender of women, but they have faced new miseries and more violence since he fell

Houzan Mahmoud Monday March 8, 2004 The Guardian

Women in Iraq endured untold hardships and difficulties during the past three decades of the Ba'ath regime. Although some basic rights for women, such as the right to education, employment, divorce in civil courts and custody over kids, were endorsed in the Personal Status Code, some of these legal rights were routinely violated.

The Ba'ath regime's "faithfulness campaign", an act of terrorism against women that included the summary beheading of scores of those accused of prostitution, is just one example of its brutality against women.However, it is now almost a year after the war, which was supposed to bring "liberation" to Iraqis. Rather than an improvement in the quality of women's lives, what we have seen is widespread violence, and an escalation of violence against women.

From the start of the occupation, rape, abduction, "honour" killings and domestic violence have became daily occurrences. The Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq (Owfi) has informally surveyed Baghdad, and now knows of 400 women who were raped in the city between April and August last year.A lack of security and proper policing have led to chaos and to growing rates of crime against women. Women can no longer go out alone to work, or attend schools or universities. An armed male relative has to guard a woman if she wants to leave the house. Girls and women have become a cheap commodity to be traded in post-Saddam Iraq. Owfi knows of cases where virgin girls have been sold to neighbouring countries for $200, and non-virgins for $100.

The idea that a woman represents family "honour" is becoming central to Iraqi culture, and protecting that honour has cost many women their lives in recent months. Rape is considered so shaming to the family's honour that death - by suicide or murder - is needed to expunge it. Like Iraqi men, many women have lost their jobs. Marooned at home and lacking independence, women are faced with new miseries. Islamist groups have imposed veiling, and have issued fatwas against prostitutes. Now "entertainment" marriages aretaking place. This is an Islamic version of prostitution, in which rich men marry women temporarily (often for only a few hours) in return for money.

The Iraqi Governing Council - an American creature - offers no hope for Iraqi women, consisting as it does of religious or tribal leaders and nationalists who rarely make any reference to women's rights. In fact, many IGC members have a history of violating women's rights. For example, the Kurdish nationalist parties that have been running northern Iraq for more than 13 years have violated women's rights and tried to suppress progressive women's organisations. In July 2000, they attacked a women's shelter and the offices of an independent women's organisation. Both were saving the lives of Kurdish women fleeing "honour" killings and domestic violence. More than 8,000 women have died in "honour" killings since the nationalists have been in control.

One of the IGC's first moves was symbolic. International Women's Day in Iraq has been changed from March 8 to August 18, the date of birth of Fatima Zahra, the prophet Mohammed's daughter. This has nothing to do with women's rights, and everything to do with subordinating women to religious rules.When the IGC proposed replacing the secular law with sharia, there were big demonstrations, but these have received almost no media coverage. This is no surprise. When the Union of the Unemployed marched for jobs, American soldiers arrested some of the organisers. This, too, passed unnoticed.

What is needed is a secular constitution based on full equality between women and men, as well as the complete separation of religion from the state and education system. At a demonstration in Baghdad recently, Yanar Mohammed, Owfi's chairperson, received two death threats from an Islamist militia group. They threatened to assassinate her and "blow up" activists who work with her.

Amnesty International has taken these threats so seriously that it has written to Paul Bremer, the US chief administrator in Iraq, raising its concern for Yanar Mohammed's safety. It is urging the Coalition Provisional Authority to ensure that, amid the bombs and the atrocities, the deterioration of women's rights doesn't become a secondary issue.The groups represented in the IGC are irrelevant to Iraqis' demands and desire for freedom. American support for Islamist groups through the IGC exposes US hypocrisy. The parties in the IGC have no legitimacy, and have not been chosen by Iraqis.

Iraq's lack of basic rights for women and the rise of political Islam are the result of three wars and the ongoing occupation. The only way out of this chaos is through the direct power of the real people of Iraq - the progressive, secular masses.

Houzan Mahmoud is the UK representative of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq houzan73 [at] yahoo.co.uk http://www.equalityiniraq.com

Guardian Unlimited ) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq - OWFI Men and Women Must Be Equal in All Civil and Individual Rights The Law of Equality of Women and Men in Iraq

Introduction:

Women in Iraq have never enjoyed equal rights with men since the establishment of the modern Iraqi state. The Iraqi Family Law (personal affairs law) enacted in the late 1950s has failed to officially recognize full gender equality. As an outright violation of Iraqi womens rights and freedoms, the Baath regime, especially during the last several years of its rule, had reversed some of the laws adopted in Iraq as the result of decades of relentless struggle by women. The changes made to the family law condoned polygamy and honour killings.

The Iraqi state is now being reestablished and its legal foundation and political and social systems are being redefined. As the organization which represents Iraqi womens demands, the Organization of Womens Freedom in Iraq poses its alternative to the Iraqi Family Law in practice for the past four decades and to the Islamic Sharia introduced by the Governing Council through its resolution 137 in January 2004.

The Organization of Womens Freedom in Iraq seeks incorporation of the principle of full and unconditional equality between man and woman in the family and in running the familys affairs. The OWFI struggles for immediate implementation of the law of gender equality all over Iraq.

General Principles:

The Islamic Sharia and the Iraqi Family Law aspired from the Islamic Sahria are laws based on the subjugation of women and treating them as second-class citizens. These laws overtly legalize violence and discrimination against women, including killing them. To achieve equality between men and women, these laws must be repealed and all Islamic laws must be completely eradicated from social life. The state and public institutions are duty-bound to seriously and relentlessly eradicate all traces and effects of these laws on society.

The law of gender equality applies to all citizens as human beings regardless of their sex. The law of gender equality must be the official law in Iraq and is to be the source of all articles and clauses of the constitution.

The state is duty-bound to form special committees and agencies to monitor the application of the law of gender equality and to prosecute those who abridge the articles of this law.

The articles of this law are to be applied to the entire population of Iraq with no exceptions.

Note:

Any amendment or revision of the articles of this law must effectively not deviate from the general principles and frameworks mentioned above.

Article I: Marriage

Section 1. Definition of Marriage

Marriage is a free agreement between two adults aimed to establish a relationship-based on cohabitation.

Section 2. Simple registration with a notary or in other official documents prepared for this purpose is sufficient for marriage to be recognized officially and be covered by family laws, if the parties so wish.

Section 3. Prohibition of Taaddod zowjat (Islamic right of multiple marriages for men). No man has the right to marry more than one woman.

Section 4. Prohibition of any form of coercion of individuals by any person or authority in marriage.

Section 5. Marriage of all couples over 16 is valid. Prohibition of marriage of children under the age of 16.

Section 6. Religion, nationality, ethnicity, language, skin colour, or belief must not prevent any couple from marriage if the parties so wish.

Article II: Dissolution of Marriage

Section 1. Any marriage based on coercion is invalid. No person or authority has the right to coerce individuals in marriage.

Section 2. A married man has no right to marry another woman. Such a marriage is invalid.

Section 3. Marriage is invalid if it bridges Article 1, Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and offenders must be prosecuted

Article III: Rights and Obligations of Men and Women in the Family

Section 1. Any form of financial transactions in marriage as terms and preconditions of marriage is illegal and prohibited. Since marriage aims in cohabitation, therefore running familys affairs is a shared obligation for women and men.

Section 2. Equal rights for women and men in supervision of the familys affairs

Section 3. The familys property and resources are owned equally by woman and man

Section 4. Imposition of sever penalties on physical abuse of woman by her husband

Article IV: Separation and Divorce

Section 1. Unconditional right of separation (divorce) for woman and man

Section 2. The procedures of separation are to be referred to a social worker for 2 months before executing separation.

Section 3. Woman has the right to remarry whenever she so wishes after separation or the death of a partner.

Section 4. Equal rights for women and men on deciding childs name and surname and whether to take the mothers or the fathers surname.

Section 5. If no agreement is reached on deciding childs surname; the child takes the mothers surname.

Section 6. Children born outside of marriage or of unknown parents can be adopted by others adults and take their surname.

Section 7. Placing all children without a family or familial care under the guardianship of the state and take their personal names only.

Article V: Child care

Section 1. Equal rights and obligations for woman and man in the family regarding the care and up-bringing of children

Section 2. After separation, the custody and care of children after the age of one year is to be given to either parents after taking in consideration their circumstances and abilities to care for children.

Section 3. After separation, the decision to place children in the custody of either parent rests with social worker.

Section 4. The decision whether to have, or not to have an abortion rests with the woman alone.

Article VI: Childrens Expenses

Section 1. State is responsible for expenses of children until the age of 18.

Article VII: Inheritance

Section 1. The state has the responsibility to divide the property of the deceased person and disperse to the other members of the family based on their needs, financial circumstances and familys income.

Section 2. Equal rights for women and men in inheritance

Section 3. People who have the right to inherit

A. Spouse

B. Children

C. Those who have a share in heritage

Section 4. Heritage is to be divided after paying debts.

Article VIII: Penal Code

Section 1. Anyone who coerces any other individual in choice of partner, marriage or separation is to be prosecuted and punished.

Section 2. Prosecution and punishment of anyone who violates the Article II, section 2 , even if it is consensual.

Section 3. Prosecution and punishment of menn in cases of rape

Section 4. Prosecution and punishment of murders being male or female

Section 5. Perpetrators of crimes are to be prosecuted and punished regardless of their sex.

Section 6. The legal age of consent for sexual relationship for both women and men is 15. Sexual relationship of adults (persons over the age of consent) with under-aged persons is illegal, even if it consensual and the adult party should be prosecuted under law.

Section 7. Prohibition for a man to have sex with a woman without her consent, even without use of violence. Such cases, upon the woman pressing charges, should be prosecuted as rape.

Section 8. Abuse, intimidation, degradation, restriction of freedom and violent treatment of women and girls in the family is prohibited. Perpetrators are to be severely penalized.

Section 9. Choice of clothing and beautification is a private affair of woman. No person or authority is allowed to interfere with this right.

Section 10. Any form of segregation between women and men in public places is prohibited and offenders are prosecuted and punished.

The Organization of Womens Freedom in Iraq struggles to make its draft law the official law in all courts in Iraq. For this purpose we put this draft before the Iraqi authority, women and their organizations and law bodies and we call on all freedom loving men and women in Iraq, all women organizations and progressive political forces inside Iraq and abroad to support this draft law.

Note: The Equality Law, which is laid down by the Organization of Womens Freedom in Iraq is based on the Equality Law adopted previously by the Independent Womens Organization on October 29, 1999 in Iraqi Kurdistan.