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Iraqi Kurdish women voice hopes for
constitution
25.4.2006
By Cyrille Cartier
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For the last several
months, civil society and women's rights groups in
Iraqi Kurdistan have been contributing to the
drafting of a regional constitution that some hope
will be better for women than the national version.
ERBIL, Kurdistan-Iraq, April 25 (Womensenews),
--In a bookcase in her Parliament office in Erbil,
Pakhshan Zangana is collecting hundreds of
documents, letters and lists of recommendations for
the Iraqi Kurdistan constitution.
Civil society and women's organizations have sent
her their suggestions since the summer of 2005, when
the drafting process for the regional constitution
began. Negotiations continue as the Iraqi
government--now emerging from a four-month deadlock
to select Jawad Maliki as prime
minister--establishes itself in Baghdad.
Under Iraq's constitution, the Kurdish regional
constitution will take precedence in any areas of
disagreement but it is widely expected that
constitutional courts will have to iron out the
differences. The regional constitution is being
debated by a 20-member constitutional committee, but
hasn't been reviewed publicly.
The national constitution was accepted in a national
referendum last October but remains unratified
because of internal turmoil. Once the government
forms it will have four months to modify the
constitution.
Zangana, a member of the Communist Party and the
only woman on the constitutional committee, says one
key difference between the two documents is that the
national constitution establishes Islam as a basic
source of legislation, while the regional draft does
not.
"There's nothing about that in the Kurdistan
constitution," says the 59-year-old Zangana. The
regional constitution, she says, safeguards "the
Islamic identity of the people of Kurdistan" but
refers to the religious freedoms of all other
groups.
Zangana, however, is careful to add that the Kurdish
regional constitution is respectful of religious
beliefs and traditional society. "There is nothing
that contradicts Islam," she says.
Iraqi Kurdistan is composed of three northern
governorates that have been operating
semi-autonomously since the Gulf War; they exert
considerable control over their security, borders,
economy, trade and law.
When stability deteriorated in much of the rest of
the country after the 2003 U.S. invasion, the
northern region bloomed. It developed billion-dollar
infrastructure projects, attracted foreign business
and upheld its reputation as the most stable and
advanced area in Iraq. |
Photo: Womense News.org |
Against Rights and Democracy
Zangana says that using Islam as a legislative
source is "basically against women's rights and
democracy."
Not all agree. Sabriya Ghafar Rahman is a founding
member of the women's organization of the Kurdistan
Islamic Union, the third largest political party in
the region, which promotes an Islamic basis for
legislation. She says the idea that Islam is bad for
women is based on misinterpretations of Islamic law.
Advocates of women's equality "believe women should
go to work like men, that women should have
political, financial and social positions like men,"
says Rahman, who is also a working mother. "I don't
think this is a woman's duty." Although she supports
equality of opportunity between men and women, she
says she is afraid that secularism will go too far
and that women will neglect their duties as mothers
and wives.
Mehabad Qeredaxi, advisor on equality issues in the
office of the Kurdish prime minister, Nicervan
Barzani, takes Zangana's view. "The current
constitution of Iraq is flawed against women's
rights and it is based on religion and tradition,"
she says. "If we can enshrine the equality principal
in the constitution then we can prevent any
violation against women's rights. If we can't do
that in the Iraqi constitution then we hope we will
be able to have it in the Kurdistan constitution."
Personal Status Law
The regional draft also deals differently with the
law that many say is most relevant to women: the
personal status law pertaining to divorce, marriage
and inheritance.
Article 39 of the national constitution says the
personal status law should be applied according to
one's religion. This means, for example, that
Shiites--about 60 percent of Iraq's 27 million
inhabitants--would rely on one court system while
the Chaldo-Assyrians--Christians of several
denominations who make up less than 2 percent of the
population--would use another. But the constitution
does not explain it in detail. In a society where
sectarianism often transgresses family makeup,
Zangana says this is troubling.
"It would lead to the breakup of family and of
society where there are different laws that apply to
different people," says Zangana, referring to
article 39.
The drafting committee for Iraqi Kurdistan, by
contrast, is leaning toward having one personal
status law that can be applied to all regardless of
religion. They would work with a version of the law
that existed during Saddam Hussein's rule.
Despite her own secular position, Zangana takes a
moderate stance on the regional draft.
Religion, she says, must be incorporated in the
regional constitution if it is to be accepted by
Parliament and the public.
"According to the tradition and religion in our
society, women are like the weak element," Zangana
says. Customs and beliefs are, at best, apologetic
and protective of women. She is helping to change
this, but she adds, "The hardest thing in our
struggle is the distance between our ambition and
the reality." "The role of the constitution and of
the activists is to prepare the society to accept
these things gradually," she says.
Bill of Rights for Women
Chilura Hardi, head of the Khatuzeen Center for
Social Action, Women's NGO, presented the Kurdistan
constitutional committee with a Bill of Rights for
Women in February. It was drafted by about 70
participants, most of whom were women representing
different organizations and parts of the region.
Some men also participated and offered legal advice.
The document is partially based on the Rights of
Women in Africa adopted by the African Union in 2003
and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women adopted in 1979 by
the United Nations General Assembly.
"We took all the things we wanted (from those
documents) to express them in a Kurdish way," making
sure to eliminate the parts about abortion and
homosexuality that are not appropriate to the
society, says Hardi. While abortion and
homosexuality are not illegal in the region, they
are subject to strong social and religious taboos.
The bill of rights bans female genital mutilation,
polygamy and the giving of women as brides to
reconcile families in conflict. Polygamy is not
uncommon here and female genital mutilation has been
reported in the more rural areas of the region.
Representatives of Islamic parties have been
excluded from the meetings on the bill of rights.
The manifesto has little chance of being passed in
Parliament and has served mainly as a vehicle for
some women to express themselves, one organizer said
on condition of anonymity.
"We knew they would be completely against what we
are doing," the organizer said. "The one way to do
it is to keep them out. They'll have their say in
the Parliament anyway."
Cyrille Cartier was working at Reuters in
Washington, D.C., before she began freelancing in
Iraq in 2004.
Womense News.org
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