WSJ: Iraqi Shiite Women Push Islamic Law On Gender Roles

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Family Matters

Iraqi Shiite Women Push Islamic Law On Gender Roles

Powerful Female Politicians Seek to Scale Back Rights; Divorce, Alimony at Issue

'Don't Defy God's Orders'

By FARNAZ FASSIHI
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 9, 2005; Page A1

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In many ways, Ms. Yaqoub, 40 years old, is emblematic of the kind of gender equality the U.S. and many Iraqis envision for the new Iraq. But the devout Shiite Muslim is part of a group of increasingly powerful female politicians seeking to erase laws that provide women with some of the same rights as men. She favors allowing Iraqi men to have as many as four wives and repealing laws that guarantee alimony payments and child-custody rights for women in divorces. Ms. Yaqoub also believes in decreasing the amount of money women stand to gain in inheritances and removing legal barriers to the marriage of girls younger than 18 years old. Ms. Yaqoub is in the vanguard of a major push by Iraq's Shiite religious and political leaders to introduce aspects of Islamic "Sharia" law into Iraq's legal code, especially where it concerns family matters and women's rights. Sharia is Islam's version of divine law, drawn from the Koran and other religious texts.

In Iraq's recent election, Shiite candidates won by a landslide and secured a little more than half of the 275 seats in the national assembly. When the new government meets for the first time later this month, its most immediate task will be to draft a new constitution and pave the way for a new round of elections by this December. What role Islam plays in Iraq's new constitution is one of the most explosive issues facing the country's newly elected legislators. Leaders of the United Iraqi Alliance, the coalition of Shiite political parties, say they are determined to make permanent constitutional changes to Iraqi laws governing such things as marriage and divorce.

But many Iraqis, including secular Sunni Muslims whose participation in the government is considered key, are uncomfortable with a formal religious component to the government. Ethnic Kurds, who govern the northern part of Iraq with relative autonomy, may decide to ignore any religious-based laws the central government passes, say Iraqi political analysts.

The Bush administration also wants Iraq to remain a secular democracy. When Shiite leaders tried to introduce changes based on Islamic Sharia law last year, the effort was dropped after former U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer threatened a veto. Now that Iraq is sovereign, the U.S. no longer has direct say over domestic matters. But a senior American official in Baghdad said the introduction of Sharia law in the constitution could raise red flags. "There is a vision of where we want Iraq to be that would make sense in terms of the resources we've put into this place and our overarching goal for democracy," said the official.

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"Iraqi society is tribal, Islamic and very conservative," says Ms. Khafaji, sitting behind a large wooden desk in her Baghdad office and wearing a black abbaya, the traditional cloth garment that conceals all but the face, hands and feet. "Most people don't feel ownership to the existing secular family law, and we must change it to follow Sharia. Forcing secularism on our society is also a form of dictatorship." Professional, educated women like Ms. Yaqoub and Ms. Khafaji make up about one-third of the candidates on the United Iraqi Alliance slate that swept the elections with the backing of Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. They hold ministerial positions and sit on local and provincial councils and act as policy makers. And they are proving to be especially effective at promoting conservative religious agendas for the simple reason that they are women, say critics.

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Write to Farnaz Fassihi at [e-mail]

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