Psycho Sensei Says "FEH"
So is this what US troops have been fighting for? Remove a dictator and replace him with complete repression for 1/2 the population? Wouldn't it be ironic if our men and women died fighting for the rights of men to commit adultery, with wives powerless to do anything about it? How about the application of Islamic family law to the non Moslems in the region? This is just pathetic.
From the Financial Times
Iraqi plan for Sharia law 'a sop to clerics', say women
By Nicolas Pelham and Charles Clover in Baghdad
Published: January 15 2004 4:00 | Last Updated: January 15 2004 4:00
Iraq's Governing Council on Wednesday defended its approval of a controversial family law that would make it possible to apply Islamic law - Sharia - instead of civil statute in domestic matters such as inheritance and divorce.
Opponents, mainly Iraqi women's groups, say the measure is a sop to Islamic clerics, who are holding up agreement on the national political process.
Hamid Kifa'i, Governing Council spokesman, denied the text, which was approved with no announcement, was part of a political deal with clerics. "It is not a concession to fundamentalists, we don't have fundamentalists in Iraq," he said.
Psycho Sensei Says: "yeah, right!"
He added that Paul Bremer, the top US administrator in Baghdad, had not signed the measure and that without the signature it would not take effect before June 30 at the earliest, when sovereignty is due to be transferred to an Iraqi provisional government.
The Governing Council's move puts the coalition in a sensitive position, caught between the demands of secular and westernised groups and the Muslim clergy. In a press release posted on the Coalition Provisional Authority website yesterday, the US declared it was "strongly encouraging Iraqis to ensure that women and women's rights are included in all facets of Iraq's political transition".
Women's groups say the new law will abolish the previous civil law on families, which had been applied since 1959, and devolve family law to sectarian religious courts. Mr Kifa'i countered that the new law simply offered Iraqis the option of using religious courts voluntarily, and that the civil law would remain in effect.
"We cannot force people to apply other laws outside their [religious] rites," he said. "The family law would enable every Iraqi to resolve all their differences on the basis of the doctrine that they believe."
Islamic courts are generally seen as less favourable to women in matters of divorce, marriage and inheritance than civil courts.
On Tuesday hundreds of women demonstrated against the move, chanting: "No to sectarianism, no to discrimination between men and women in our new Iraq."
Nasreen Barawi, the Harvard-educated minister of public works, led the protests, saying that women were discussing a general strike in the ministries. "Iraqi women feel that they are not fairly represented in the Governing Council and ministries," she told the Zaman newspaper. Three of the Governing Council's 25 members are women.
The move is likely to please conservative clerics, however, and comes amid sensitive negotiations between the council and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia Muslims.
Since last November Mr Sistani has been holding up agreement on the selection of anational transitional assembly next May, asking that its members be elected, rather than selected by provincial caucuses.
Adnan Pachachi, the current president of the Governing Council, met Mr Sistani on Tuesday to try to persuade him to support the US plan for a caucus-style mechanism.
Violence in Iraq's Sunni Arab regions continued yesterday, as a suicide car bomb killed at least three Iraqis in the town of Baaquba and wounded 30, according to Iraqi police. US forces also reported a firefight with militants in Samarra, in which they killed eight and took no casualties themselves.
US forces meanwhile announced the capture of Khamis Sirhan Mohammed, who they described as the ringleader of anti-coalition guerrillas in the western al-Anbar province, and was number 54 on the US most wanted list of former Ba'ath party officials.