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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font size=2>------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
</font><font size=4><b>Why Iraqi women aren't complaining<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Their secular family law is about to be
overturned and placed under religious control. So where's the
outcry?<br><br>
</font><font size=2><b>Haifa Zangana<br><br>
Thursday February 19, 2004<br>
The Guardian/UK<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Iraqi family law is the most progressive in the
Middle East. Divorce cases are heard only in the civil courts
(effectively outlawing the "repudiation" religious divorce);
polygamy is outlawed unless the first wife welcomes it (and very few do);
and women divorcees have an equal right to custody of their
children.<br>
The "liberators" of Iraq can take no credit for this. The
secular family code was introduced in 1959. Saddam Hussein weakened its
inheritance provisions but left it mostly unchanged. Now it is under
threat from the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. IGC resolution 137
will, if implemented, eliminate the idea of civil marriage and place
several aspects of family law - including divorce and inheritance rights
- directly under the control of religious authorities.<br><br>
I was in Baghdad when the resolution was issued, on my first visit home
since 1975 when, fearful for my life and the safety of my family, I left
the country of my birth. I noticed with amazement how little attention
any of the women I met paid to resolution 137. Only 100 women
demonstrated in the city's Firdose Square to condemn it. Where was the
outcry?<br><br>
I had been terrified that my years away would have made me a stranger.
But the minute I stepped into my family's house, I was at home. Over
countless cups of Turkish coffee, I asked every woman I met why she
seemed not to give a damn about a resolution that is surely going to
change women's lives for the worse. I was met with kind smiles and the
same weary reply: it's not going to change a thing.<br><br>
Ten months after their "liberation", Iraqi women have only just
started to leave their houses to carry out ordinary tasks such as taking
their kids to school, shopping or visiting neighbours. They do so despite
the risk of kidnapping or worse. It is women and children who bear the
brunt of the absence of law and order, the lack of security and the
availability of weapons.<br><br>
Ten months on, most women graduates are still unemployed. Seventy-two per
cent of working Iraqi women were public employees, and the public sector
is in tatters. Other workers are suffering too. My niece, Luma, is a
biologist. She was unemployed during Saddam's era because she wasn't a
member of the Ba'ath party. She is unemployed now because she refused to
get a tazkia (a recommendation form) from one of the main political
parties represented in the IGC.<br><br>
As a housewife and a mother, her daily life, like that of most Iraqi
women, follows the same tedious routine: get gas for the cooker (make
sure the cylinder doesn't leak - gas explosions are not unusual); buy oil
(make sure it's not mixed with water); buy petrol for the car (she will
queue for three hours, but the men's queues are even longer so the task
falls to her).<br><br>
At the sound of special hooting many of Baghdad's women rush outdoors to
pay the refuse collectors to collect the rubbish (in the heart of old
Baghdad, rubbish piles as high as the buildings. Women and children
search there for anything they can sell or eat).<br><br>
The electricity supply hasn't improved in the past 10 months either,
despite Paul Bremer's claims. In my family's house in Palestine Street, a
middle-class area, the women have to deal with three different supply
sources to get just 12 hours of power a day. The first source is the
national grid, from which we receive electricity for two hours then are
cut off for three (we're lucky - in al-Adhamia the on/off ratio is 2:4;
residents there believe that they are being punished because they support
the resistance). The second source is the local mosque, which acquired a
generator during the looting and now supplies 100 houses with three hours
of electricity per day. The third source is the house generator, which
must be handled with special care. To add to the general misery, there is
still no postal service in the country and no telephone services in most
areas.<br><br>
There has been no shortage of initiatives to "enlighten" Iraqi
woman and encourage them to play an active role in the country's
reconstruction. In one, the Department for International Development and
the Foreign Office declared "the need, urgently, for a women's tent
meeting in Baghdad with a declaration in compliance with
1325".<br><br>
Patricia Hewitt tried to establish a high council for Iraqi women.
Condoleezza Rice opened a centre for women's human rights in Diwanya. In
her opening speech - delivered via satellite - she assured Iraqi women
that "we are with you in spirit". It was attended by commanders
and soldiers of the occupying forces, but by very few Iraqi women.
Meanwhile in Diwanya itself, local farmers (many of them women) were
unable to start the winter season because of unexploded cluster bombs on
their land.<br><br>
Iraqi political parties are also desperate to employ women to boost their
own credibility. So why are Iraqi women not welcoming the chance to be a
model for others in the Middle East?<br><br>
Over countless coffees, the women explain. They are educated, resilient
and survivors of atrocities of Saddam's regime. They replaced male
workers during the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war, and set up cottage
industries to support their families during 13 years of brutal sanctions.
They are not about to forgive the US or British governments for
strengthening Saddam's regime, imposing sanctions, and destroying their
cities in two wars. Iraqi women know that the occupation forces are in
the country to guard their own interests, not those of the
Iraqis.<br><br>
In refusing to take part in any initiative by the US-led occupation, or
its Iraqi allies, women are practising passive resistance. They adopted
the same technique against Saddam's despised General Union of Iraqi
women. Then, they managed to cause the collapse of one of the richest,
most powerful institutions for women in the Middle East. Perhaps they
will do so again.<br><br>
</font><font size=2><b>·</b> Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist and
painter. She is a former political prisoner of the Ba'ath
regime<br><br>
</font><font size=2 color="#0000FF"><u>haifa_zangana@yahoo.co.uk<br>
</u></font><font size=1>Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004<br><br>
</font><pre>--
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