David Enders (Mother Jones): Women and Sharia: How will Iraiq women fare?

[Jack Rabbit]

From Mother Jones
Dated Wednesday February 9

Women and Sharia
How will Iraqi women fare under a constitution based on Islamic law?
By David Enders

Hanging out with the Sadris, the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, is a real treat, if only because they are among the few guys who don't constantly hit on Hiba, the translator I work with. Almost across the board, when we meet lawyers, ministry officials, insurance agents — men of any shape and color, really — she gets hit on. "We" are frequently invited to unscheduled press conferences by the Ministry of Defense spokesman, who is one of her legions of admirers. I am sure I am the only journalist who gets calls from the MOD flak at eight in the evening, just wondering if my translator is around.

Anyway, it seems the pheromone that gets them going is the working-woman factor — if she's not at home, she must be loose. Hiba is married, but that doesn't seem to stop them. She tries to be polite and friendly, but it just seems to egg them on. It's an added problem because she is already a woman working in a man's world, and every time she tries to make friends with a male colleague, it seems to end with her deleting his number from her phone because he just won't stop calling.

So you can imagine Hiba's reaction as a relatively liberated Iraqi woman when it became evident that Iraq's constitution, to be hashed out over the coming months, will most likely contain more than a nod to Islamic law.

Jenan Jassim Al-Obeidy is a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the party that led the so-called "Shiite list" of candidates and has taken more than half the vote. Al-Obeidy said that they are not pushing for anything as strict as forced veiling, but rather to have sharia, Islamic law, as the code for matters of "personal status law," including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Multiple marriages would also still be allowed. Al-Obeidy, a small woman cloaked in a billowing black abbiya, or robe, the head cover of which she is forever adjusting when it slides down over her face looks slight. But when I ask, she launches into a fierce defense of the plan.

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[papau]

1. Tunisia Sharia is "good" sharia- Saudi Sharia is "bad" - Iraq will be ????

If the US makes clear that only Tunisia's version will make us happy - and Iraq agrees - I suspect a win-win on this.