This is scarey. Giant step backwards. In some ways Iraq women were way better off under Sadaam.
Iraqi draft charter to push religion
Women's groups oppose curb on rights
Sunni Arab politicians to rejoin talks
QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD—A chapter of Iraq's draft constitution gives Islam a major role in Iraqi civil law, raising concerns that women could lose rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance.
The proposal also appears to rule out non-governmental militias, an area addressed yesterday by the new U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad. Urging Iraqis to build national institutions, he said there is no place for factional forces that "build the infrastructure for a future civil war.''
The civil law section, one of six to make up Iraq's new charter, covers the rights and duties of citizens and public and private freedoms. The language in the chapter is not final, but members of the charter drafting committee said there was agreement on most of its wording.
Committee members have been rushing to complete the constitution so the Iraqi National Assembly can set the final wording by Aug. 15. Parliament's version would be put to a public vote by mid-October, and if approved, elections would follow by the year's end.
The drafting panel's efforts got a boost yesterday when its 12 Sunni Arab members ended a boycott, easing fears the document might be rejected by the ethnic community at the heart of the insurgency.
Sunni Arab support is crucial because the charter can be scuttled if voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject it by a two-thirds majority. Sunni Arabs are a majority in four provinces.
A Sunni member of the constitutional commission, Saleh al-Mutlaq, said he and his 11 colleagues agreed to resume work after receiving assurances from the government that their grievances would be addressed.
Those concerns included better security after last week's assassination of two colleagues.
Most worrying for women's groups has been the section on civil rights, which some feel would roll back women's rights under a 1959 civil law enacted by a secular regime.
In the copy obtained by Associated Press yesterday, Article 19 of the second chapter says "the followers of any religion or sect are free to choose their civil status according to their religious or sectarian beliefs.''
Shiite Muslim leaders have pushed for a stronger role for Islam in civil law but women's groups argue that could base legal interpretations on stricter religious lines that are less favourable toward women.
Under Islamic law, a woman gets half of what a man would get when it comes to inheritance. Men also have the power when it comes to initiating divorces. Committee members said yesterday they had taken account of women's concerns, but said they were not planning to make changes since the National Assembly will have final say on the wording.
Last week, Qassim Dawoud, a member of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's secular bloc in parliament, told reporters: "I can assure that (there will be) no humiliation to the rights of women in the new Iraq.''
In other areas, the chapter obtained by AP would make the judiciary independent, require public trials, ban torture and require a judicial order to detain anyone. Child labour, which flourished in the 1990s after the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq, would be banned.
Meanwhile, a minibus packed with explosives blew up yesterday at a checkpoint outside a hotel once used by American contract workers, killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 18. A second suicide bomber killed two Iraqi commandos and injured 10 people in an attack at a police garrison in the capital.
A U.S. soldier was killed yesterday when a roadside bomb exploded under his vehicle near Samarra, north of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
Iraqi draft charter to push religion
Women's groups oppose curb on rights
Sunni Arab politicians to rejoin talks
QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD—A chapter of Iraq's draft constitution gives Islam a major role in Iraqi civil law, raising concerns that women could lose rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance.
The proposal also appears to rule out non-governmental militias, an area addressed yesterday by the new U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad. Urging Iraqis to build national institutions, he said there is no place for factional forces that "build the infrastructure for a future civil war.''
The civil law section, one of six to make up Iraq's new charter, covers the rights and duties of citizens and public and private freedoms. The language in the chapter is not final, but members of the charter drafting committee said there was agreement on most of its wording.
Committee members have been rushing to complete the constitution so the Iraqi National Assembly can set the final wording by Aug. 15. Parliament's version would be put to a public vote by mid-October, and if approved, elections would follow by the year's end.
The drafting panel's efforts got a boost yesterday when its 12 Sunni Arab members ended a boycott, easing fears the document might be rejected by the ethnic community at the heart of the insurgency.
Sunni Arab support is crucial because the charter can be scuttled if voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject it by a two-thirds majority. Sunni Arabs are a majority in four provinces.
A Sunni member of the constitutional commission, Saleh al-Mutlaq, said he and his 11 colleagues agreed to resume work after receiving assurances from the government that their grievances would be addressed.
Those concerns included better security after last week's assassination of two colleagues.
Most worrying for women's groups has been the section on civil rights, which some feel would roll back women's rights under a 1959 civil law enacted by a secular regime.
In the copy obtained by Associated Press yesterday, Article 19 of the second chapter says "the followers of any religion or sect are free to choose their civil status according to their religious or sectarian beliefs.''
Shiite Muslim leaders have pushed for a stronger role for Islam in civil law but women's groups argue that could base legal interpretations on stricter religious lines that are less favourable toward women.
Under Islamic law, a woman gets half of what a man would get when it comes to inheritance. Men also have the power when it comes to initiating divorces. Committee members said yesterday they had taken account of women's concerns, but said they were not planning to make changes since the National Assembly will have final say on the wording.
Last week, Qassim Dawoud, a member of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's secular bloc in parliament, told reporters: "I can assure that (there will be) no humiliation to the rights of women in the new Iraq.''
In other areas, the chapter obtained by AP would make the judiciary independent, require public trials, ban torture and require a judicial order to detain anyone. Child labour, which flourished in the 1990s after the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq, would be banned.
Meanwhile, a minibus packed with explosives blew up yesterday at a checkpoint outside a hotel once used by American contract workers, killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 18. A second suicide bomber killed two Iraqi commandos and injured 10 people in an attack at a police garrison in the capital.
A U.S. soldier was killed yesterday when a roadside bomb exploded under his vehicle near Samarra, north of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
