Iraqi women could lose rights they've had for decades, lawmakers say

[Judi Lynn]

Iraqi women could lose rights they've had for decades, lawmakers say
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press, 2/2/2004 17:13

WASHINGTON (AP) Iraqi women are in danger of losing many of their rights to Islamic law, and the U.S. occupation authority is not doing enough to prevent it, Democratic lawmakers said Monday.

Though deposed President Saddam Hussein has been criticized on many grounds, women had some of the most liberal protections of any Muslim country under Iraqi legislation that prohibited marriage under the age of 18 and denied favoritism to men in inheritance, divorce and child custody.

The Iraqi Governing Council in December decided to abolish Saddam's code and allow each religious group to apply its tradition.

The decision has not been approved by U.S. occupation administrator L. Paul Bremer, who wields a veto. The 45 members of the House said Monday in a letter to President Bush that the administration must act now because it will be unable to reverse the council's action after the scheduled June 30 transfer of power to Iraqis.

''It would be a tragedy beyond words if Iraqi women lost the rights they had under Saddam Hussein, especially when the purpose of our mission in Iraq was to make life better for the Iraqi people,'' 44 Democrats and one independent wrote to Bush.
(snip/...)

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/033/wash/Iraqi_women_could_lose_rights_:.shtml

[pezcore64]

1. ....

I had saw some program on TV a couple weeks ago about how in Afghanistan the constitution being made puts islamic law as the law and how women will still be punished for going without head-dress and how blasphemers well be killed. basicly that the consitution says some things contrary to islamic law, but that there is a part in it that says islamic law is the law. i should have payed more attention to the program.
i just know what they were saying and showing about the new government in afghanistan would point at a Taliban-Lite regime.

[JoFerret]

2. Thanks Bushco......you miserable

ignorant uncaring unpatriotic lying self-centered thieving scumbags. Thanks a million. (This too was easily predicted just like all the rest of the mess you have created.)If I could determine and predict most of this mess through reading a few newspapers, how come they didn't whatever the state of the "intelligence". What a scam excuse.

[louis-t]

3. nice going....

dumbass.

[lumpy]

4. This is what the Shiites

have wanted all along. The tragedy is that Saddam was a cautious progressive trying to bring Iraq into the modern age of select rights.

[Columbia]

12. You've got to be kidding me

"The tragedy is that Saddam was a cautious progressive trying to bring Iraq into the modern age of select rights."

You aren't being serious right?

[Habibi]

5. And of course

if you dare to point out that Iraqi women enjoyed decent human rights under Saddam, you will be accused of being a "Saddam-lover."

Fuckers.

Hate Bush? What other rational response is there?

[Mari333]

6. Fundies in the US arent much different

and womens issues are the last thing the bUsh constituency cares about.

[foreigncorrespondent]

8. I was thinking that myself...

...when I was reading the article.

[MasonJar]

7. Go ahead and tell your friends that Saddam helped women.

I rail about it all the time; even the Bush supporters i know have to admit that Iraqi women did well under the dictator. The fundamentalists could not touch them. I saw a speech at a peace rally by a female Arabic Georgetown law student. She said the Koran does not give inequality to women. That is the way the men have interpreted because they could. The same thing happened in Christianity to a much lesser degree...early Catholic priests deciding that women could not be priests, etc.

[number6]

9. same like under the Repooplicans

losing rights

[Exultant Democracy]

10. This can not be left alone,

Write to the candidates that you support/donate to and your congress people, and make them make a stand. If they stand up to Bush for this then maybe they will have to do what is right to make sure it doesn't become a campaign issue next fall.

[aeon flux]

11. Why does the US pack the governing council

with fundamentalist reactionaries?

[Columbia]

13. Which do you guys want?

I've heard people say here that the Iraqis should choose their own government even if it's Islamic based and now condemnations for the same. Which is it? Should we let them choose whatever government they want today but may hate tomorrow or attempt to help them setup a government that protects the rights of minorities, but may not be so popular?