Woah. According to one NGO, women were treated better and their rights more respected prior to the US invasion and the supposed new *democratic* government.
"We interviewed women in the country and met with local NGOs dealing with gender issues to develop this survey, which asked questions about the quality of women's life and respect for their rights," said Senar Muhammad, president of Baghdad-based NGO Woman Freedom Organisation. "The results show that women are less respected now than they were under the previous regime, while their freedom has been curtailed."According to the survey, women's basic rights under the Hussein regime were guaranteed in the constitution and – more importantly – respected, with women often occupying important government positions. Now, although their rights are still enshrined in the national constitution, activists complain that, in practice, they have lost almost all of their rights.
And so it goes. As we have written about this before, military interventions almost always mean losses for women's rights. I love that there was so much talk of *helping* women by the US government in justifying invasion and war.
You can also read more about this at Global Voices.
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According to the survey, women's basic rights under the Hussein regime were guaranteed in the constitution and – more importantly – respected, with women often occupying important government positions.
Let's just overlook the little fact that there is no such thing as a "guaranteed" right under an arbitrary military dictatorship. Any antebellum respect or authority that a handful of privileged women may have enjoyed in Iraq was rooted solely in the whim of the regime.
I agree with David T that there's no guarantee of rights under a dictatorship, but at the same time I'm more concerned with the current condition of women's lives; abstract rights enshrined in a constitution are of secondary importance to the immediate circumstances of people. It's not surprising (as has been said over and over again) that quality of life diminishes during war. What I wonder is whether the American admin has set Iraq on the path towards theocracy?
i actually don't agree with mr thompson on this one.
there is no such thing as a "guaranteed" right under any government. there are always exceptions and, of course, dictatorships and fascist governments tend to lead the pack in exceptions.
however, the key phrase was "and respected". the "guarantee" of anything is just a promise. and what the article says is that more rights were "guaranteed" and "respected" under hussein's government than under current conditions.
hopefully, things will stabilize there and conditions will be better than during saddam's regime which was, everyone admits, extremely repressive and oppressive.
and, laura, that's a really important question right now. if so, what will be the outcome for the people living in iraq (particularly for adherents to sects that lose out, christians, jews, atheists, women, and so forth)
further, a lot of people are wondering whether america has set iraq on the path to splintering along sectarian lines (kurds, shias, sunnis, etc.) with a very violent process to get there (which is what we're seeing currently).
peace and blessings
Well, I of course don't agree witht he Iraq thing. I mean we can fight and fight and fight, and Saddam being an afterthought is just that, but we can't change the ideology of anybody.
If in the porcess women lost what little they had, then it is just that worse.
And you don't even have to take the NGO's word for it. Just take a look at the new "Iraqi" constitution, which adds a huge qualifier ("to the extent consistent with Sharia law") to women's equality that had not previously been present. Of course, women's organisations had been completely shut out of the process by which the Iraqis "deliberated" on "their" "constitution".
It's also worth noting that one of the first policy initiatives of the US-appointed, US-paid, US-controlled "Iraqi Governing Council" was to subject family law to Sharia law, even though it had been a civil matter since the 1950s.