Women of the New Iraq

A group of Iraqi women recently met the U.S. ambassador in an effort to push the framers of Iraq's constitution not to limit women's rights. Many Western feminist groups and some Iraqi women activists fear Islamic law, which if enshrined as a main source of legislation will be used to restrict their rights, specifically in matters relating to marriage, divorce and inheritance. The U.S. shares this concern; Iraqi women more generally do not. Why?

Most Iraqi women recognize, and try to sensitively cope with, the predicament of dealing with occupation and the rise of reactionary practices affecting their rights and way of life. This applies across the political and social class spectrum, for the secular left as much as for moderate Islamists and nationalists. They also feel that writing the constitution is not their priority for the time being. Iraqi women believe that it is important for the people concerned to be able to think clearly, to think of the future when writing such a crucial document. In order to do this, they must be liberated from immediate fears and be able to enjoy basic human rights, such as walking safely in the streets of their city.

Iraqi women do not enjoy these privileges.

Despite all the rhetoric about "building a new democracy,” Iraqis are buckled under the burdens of abuse and plunder committed by members of the U.S.-led occupation force and its local Iraqi sub-contractors. Daily life for most Iraqis is still a struggle for survival, with tragedies and atrocities engulfing them.

Human rights under occupation have proven to be a mirage similar to weapons of mass destruction. Torture and ill-treatment of members of political and armed groups, even the torture of children held in adult facilities, is widespread. Depleted uranium and other banned weapons have been used against various Iraqi cities by American and British troops, weapons including the MK-77 incendiary bomb, a modern form of napalm.

Iraqi women were long the most liberated in the Middle East. Occupation has confined them to their homes. A typical Iraqi woman's day begins with the struggle to get the basics: electricity, petrol or a cylinder of gas, fresh water, food and medication. It ends with a sigh of relief for surviving death threats and violent attacks. For a majority of Iraqi women, simply venturing into the streets harbors the possibility of attack or kidnapping for profit or revenge. Young girls are sold to neighboring countries for prostitution.

In the land of oil, 16 million Iraqis rely on monthly food rations for survival. They have not received any since May. Privatization threatens all free public services. Acute malnutrition has doubled among children. Unemployment at 70 percent is exacerbating poverty, prostitution, backstreet abortions and honor killings. Corruption and nepotism are rampant in the interim government. Gender is no obstacle. Layla Abdul-Latif, minister of transport under Iyad Allawi's regime, is under investigation for corruption. Her male colleague Ayham Al-Sammarai, former minister of electricity, managed to flee the country.

Women's political participation in the interim government, national assembly and even the committee appointed to write the constitution follows a quota system imposed by Paul Bremer, the former de facto ruler of Iraq imposed by the U.S.. This is the man who engineered a process for reproducing the U.S.-appointed Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), to prolong the occupation and incite sectarian and ethnic conflicts.

Iraqi women's historical struggle against colonial occupation for national unity, social justice and legal equality has been reduced to sheer bickering among a handful of "women leaders" over nominal political posts. The quota system has widened the gap between women members of interim governments and the majority of Iraqi women.