{"id":1770,"date":"2005-08-10T00:01:54","date_gmt":"2005-08-10T07:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/08\/09\/iraqi-womens-rights-around-the-blogosphere\/"},"modified":"2005-08-10T00:01:54","modified_gmt":"2005-08-10T07:01:54","slug":"iraqi-womens-rights-around-the-blogosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1770","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi Women's Rights Around the Blogosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the comments of Pseudo-Adrienne’s post yesterday<\/a>, Asher of Dreams into Lightning<\/a> posted some quotes from other blogs about the situation for women in Iraq, which I liked so much that I’m totally swiping it and posting here.<\/p>\n

A couple of recent items:<\/p>\n

Mohammed at Iraq the Model<\/a><\/p>\n

In spite of the heat and the dust that’s covering Baghdad for the 2nd day, more than a hundred Iraqi women representing NGOs and active groups gathered to declare their demands in equality and a civil family and personal affairs law.<\/p>\n

The women set a large tent in Al-Firdows square which witnessed the fall of Saddam in April 2003. Under this icon of freedom the women held their signs and demands high.<\/p>\n

I met some of the activists who talked enthusiastically about plans for more protests and conventions to show their disapproval of the constitution’s draft because they’re afraid that religion might hijack the constitution and deprive them of their rights.<\/p>\n

I’ve also noticed that signs that required two to hold were held by a male and a female in a sign of equality; I liked the idea! …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Full post, with pictures, at the link.<\/p>\n

Kat at The Middle Ground<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Iraq Constitution is in the process of being written. Several drafts have been sent to the public for input in preparation for the referendum on August 15, 2005. As the negotiations continue, questions about the base of law and the role of Islam and Shari’ah continue to be points of contention. Many women in Iraq will be affected if Shari’ah is adopted as the sole source of law or if it is adopted as a major source of law and its implementation is left up to the different regions of Iraq.<\/p>\n

Some regions are effectively controlled by major religious parties, both Sunni and Shia, which advocate traditional and restricted roles for women. The laws that would be enacted under Shari’ah would impact women negatively including such issues as custody of children (usually given to the men regardless of the reason for divorce or separation), divorce (which gives women limited if no rights in divorce, regardless of the condition of their union and allow men free reign to divorce at will for little if any reason and can impact her and her children’s financial situation), inheritance (depending on whose version of Shari’ah, widows could be left with less than 50% of their husbands property and wealth, regardless of the number of children she has to support while the remaining inheritance would be given to his brothers, father, uncles and cousins; for women already living in poverty, this could be devastating), and voting rights and representation within the government.<\/p>\n

These are but a few of the issues facing women in the new Iraq. Other issues include laws to protect women from abuse, honor killings and unfair and inhumane punishment for the crime of “adultery” which includes pre-marital sex and rape. …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Follow Kat’s links to the American Islamic Congress<\/a> and Women’s Alliance for a Democratic Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plus, this post on how people can help, from Dreams Into Lightning<\/a>. I’ve changed it a little, though, so blame the content on me, not on DIL:<\/p>\n

1) Write your senator<\/a> and representative<\/a> asking them to support these organizations with additional funds or statements of support for women’s rights. (If you are not in the United States, please feel free to write your parliament member or other government representatives to give support to these organizations.)<\/p>\n

2) Donate funds directly to any of the women’s organization’s listed below.<\/p>\n

The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq<\/a>
\nWomen’s Alliance for a Democratic Iraq<\/a><\/p>\n

3) If you work for a company or are a member of an organization, particularly any organizations for women within your country or region, ask them to provide assistance, either financially, materially (ie, donating time, media assistance, printing, supplies, etc) or politically.<\/p>\n

Some may be concerned that this assistance will come too late. It is never too late. Changes to the constitution are being made as you read this and will be made up to the last moment before the referendum. Even after the constitution is written and the referendum passed, women’s rights in Iraq will still be an issue and these women will need our support.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(The original post on DIL<\/a> also suggested donating money to the Independent Women’s Forum, an anti-feminist, pro-Republican think tank with no special Iraq expertise, and some other organizations that weren’t as appalling as the IWF but also didn’t seem very focused on women in Iraq. I deleted those links and stuck in a link to OWFI<\/a> instead.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the comments of Pseudo-Adrienne’s post yesterday, Asher of Dreams into Lightning posted some quotes from other blogs about the situation for women in Iraq, which I liked so much that I’m totally swiping it and posting here. A couple … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iraq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}