Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Iraq. Bizzarrie del "processo democratico"

Times Online
July 27, 2005
The Iraqi women who fear that democracy will crush freedom
 From James Hider
Oppression and inequality may be enshrined in the new
constitution
SUHAIDA MAYA never used to wear a hijab, the headscarf that
Muslim women don as a mark of religious modesty. An English
teacher from Shattra, a town in central Iraq, she always
wore whatever she wanted.
Now she and her daughter both cover up for fear of the
rising number of Islamist puritans in the south.
"We have to cover up. The Islamic parties even come into
schools' sports lessons and tell girls that they have to
wear skirts over their tracksuits. It's like being in Iran,"
she said, her defiance shown by the bright pink of her
unwanted hijab, and the women's rights group she runs.
Many women in Iraq, especially in the Shia south, are
increasingly concerned that Islamic parties are imposing
their strict religious ways on women who once enjoyed some
of the most liberal rights in the region.
Leaked drafts of Iraq's forthcoming constitution bear out
fears that restrictions on their rights may soon be
enshrined in the law. The latest copy of the charter, due to
be finalised in three weeks, revealed wording that could
roll back a 1959 secular law that enshrined women's equality.
Article 19 of the draft states that "the followers of any
religion or sect are free to choose their civil status
according to their religious or sectarian beliefs". In other
words, domestic issues, including the issues of divorce and
women's inheritance, could fall under Islamic codes that
human rights advocates say would make women second-class
citizens.
Under some rigid interpretations of Islamic law, a husband
can divorce his wife merely by stating three times in front
of her that their union is terminated. Women's testimony in
court is also given less weight than men's, at a time when
rights groups say domestic violence is rising rapidly.
Obtaining convictions in rape cases would be particularly
difficult, analysts say.
Another problem would be that many Iraqi marriages are
mixed, and it was not clear who would decide which sectarian
law would resolve domestic disputes. "These are the dark
days we are going through," Yennar Mohammad, the head of the
Baghdad-based Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, said.
"Imagine you have a committee where half the constitution
writers are Islamist groups and some of them are nationalist
groups with a tribal mentality. We are looking at a
committee, or selected misogynist group, that have only one
thing in common . . . that they want to keep women in an
inferior status in this society."
A serious concern for Ms Mohammed is the possibility of
young girls being married off. She said: "Under Islam, when
the Prophet married his last wife, she was nine years old.
In the United States they give a name to this kind of sexual
union. Under Islam this is legal and anyone can do it."
The issue is symbolic of the dilemma facing Western
diplomats, who insist that Iraq has the democratic right to
write its own constitution, but worry that dominant
religious conservatives may use that very freedom to crush
democratic development.
Zalman Khalilzad, the new US Ambassador to Iraq, voiced his
fears for women's rights. "A society cannot achieve all its
potential if it does things that prevent -- weakens the
prospects of -- half of its population to make the fullest
contribution that it can."
Not all women want equal rights, however. Ethar Moussa, the
editor of the magazine Our Eve, sponsored by a leading Shia
Islamist party, argues that there is no equality in divine
law, and creating it could lead to corrupting Western
influences.
"When we come to have outright equality, the door would be
wide open for many liberties that are basically
unacceptable," she said, her face veiled and her body
covered. "The Islamic principle states that there should be
justice, not outright equality between men and women . . .
all we want is justice and this is enough."
That is not enough for Ms Mohammed. She said: "We are
practically being turned into slaves by the constitution, by
admitting that Islam is the formal religion of the country,
and by handing over the writing of it . . . to a bunch of
religious bigots who want to see women inferior in society."
Women's advocacy groups have started demonstrating publicly,
but they fear that their lobbying is being overshadowed by
more pressing issues. "Unfortunately we don't have a
militia," Masoon al-Denuchi, the Deputy Minister of Culture
and president of the Iraqi Women's Group, said bitterly.
"The only thing we can do is lobby and talk and talk and talk."

 
Solito titolo del ca**o che non ha nulla a che spartire con l'articolo,
per altro di notizia gia' pubblicata.
-Stefano