Iraq: women protest draft constitution due to loss of women's rights

[philb]

BAGHAD-The draft constitution for Iraq that Shiites pushed through the National Assembly in late August would curtail women's rights.

On July 19, women's groups held a demonstration protesting the provisions of the draft, which had then not yet been made public.

The draft constitution says that a family's sect or religion would determine the laws on matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance that would apply to them. Supposedly, the parties to a case could decide whether to take it to a civil court or a religious court, but, if the parties disagreed, whose voice would prevail? Would a woman be able to take a case to a civil court if her husband wanted it to be decided by a religious panel?

The proposed constitution would replace laws that have granted women more equality than perhaps any others in the Middle East with laws that, for example, could mean that Shiite women of any age would have to get their families' permission to marry.

About 200 women and men attended the protest. They carried signs with slogans like "We want to be equal to everybody-we want human rights for everybody."

"We don't want to use separate Sunni or Shiite laws," Dohar Rouhi, head of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs told The New York Times. "We want a law that can be applied to everyone. We want justice for women."

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_200507/ai_n15665819

[prolesunited]

1. They need to sit down and shut up

This is simply the price of freedom. :sarcasm:

[biscotti]

2. you made me giggle

:applause: