{"id":1785,"date":"2005-08-16T03:59:09","date_gmt":"2005-08-16T10:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/08\/15\/more-bad-news-about-iraq-the-draft-of-their-constitution-and-the-women-surprise-surprise\/"},"modified":"2005-08-16T03:59:09","modified_gmt":"2005-08-16T10:59:09","slug":"more-bad-news-about-iraq-the-draft-of-their-constitution-and-the-women-surprise-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1785","title":{"rendered":"More bad news concerning Iraq,…surprise, surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well I really can’t blame anyone who is not all that optimistic about a democracy flourishing in Iraq. The news from the area certainly doesn’t me into a “yay, they’ll have democracy, justice, human rights, and social equality soon!” mood. First up, there has been a delay in the presentation of the draft of the Iraqi Constitution<\/a><\/strong>. You know, the document that will–hopefully-ensure justice and liberty for all, and human rights for the Iraqi people (which should also include women<\/strong> by the way).<\/p>\n

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 15 – Still deadlocked after days of negotiations, Iraq’s leaders decided today to give themselves another week to agree on a new constitution and resolve a series of fundamental disagreements over the future and identity of this fractious land.<\/p>\n

After meeting for several hours inside the protected Green Zone here, a group of senior Iraqi leaders told the National Assembly that they were unable to resolve a number of critical issues, including the role of Islam, the rights of women, the sharing of the country’s vast oil wealth and whether to grant the majority Shiites their own semi-independent region in the south.<\/p>\n

Minutes before midnight, the leaders of the assembly agreed to amend the country’s interim constitution and give themselves until next Monday to strike a deal. There were proclamations of brotherhood and pledges to work together, but the leaders said that ultimately their differences were too vast to bridge today, the previous deadline.<\/p>\n

“They need time,” Prime Minister Irbahim Jafaari said after the assembly vote. “I think next week will be enough.”[…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wonderful. And will they be able to settle issues such as the role of Islam, women’s rights, and ‘who gets control over the oil’ in a week? Will any of these issues be disparaged and marginalized for the sake of another? And gee, if so, which one of these issues will be most likely marginalized? Do you need a hint? And yes, lest we forget about sweet, delicious, non-renewable oil–with its slick ebony goodness, which has become the root of all–for lack of a better word–evil<\/em>, when it comes to international political wrangling.<\/p>\n

[…]The issue of Shiite autonomy is especially significant because the richest oil fields are situated in the extreme south of the country.<\/p>\n

Indeed, some Sunni leaders say the Shiite demand for self-rule is largely a cover for hoarding the bulk of Iraq’s oil revenue. On Sunday, an agreement on sharing oil revenues between the central and regional governments fell apart, with the Shiites demanding more control.[…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh<\/em> oil. Damn your ability to instigate conflicts and even all-out wars over you, and you’re not even renewable–effin’ succubus. As if Sunni and Shiite muslims need another “reason” to be at each other’s throats. And no, things aren’t looking up for the women of Iraq. With debate over the role of Islam in the Iraqi Constitution, there is, and reasonably so, a strong concern that extremist-Islamic clerics could use it as a means to legislate the subjugation of women and girls in the country. (via Salon.com<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Women’s rights groups in the Middle East fear that Iraqi women will be the biggest losers in the country’s new Constitution.<\/p>\n

[…] But the religious and ethnic power grab that, in the wake of Saddam, has fractured the country into Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish mini-states, does not bode well for women. Since the fall of the Baath regime to the Americans, practitioners of political Islam in both the Shiite and Sunni communities have risen to power, with Iran looming large in the background. Should their fundamentalist tenets dominate the constitution, say women’s rights activists in Iraq and the Middle East, individual rights for women may be nowhere in sight in the new Iraq.<\/p>\n

Women, who make up 60 percent of Iraqi society, are underrepresented in the burgeoning government. During Iraq’s election in January 2005, 275 representatives were voted into a new National Assembly, 33 percent of whom were women. The 55-member Constitutional Committee, primary architects of the new constitution, is only 17 percent women.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, but as history as shown us, when it comes to forming a democratic nation, you need<\/em> hypocrisy. Do it by socially and legally disenfranchizing groups of people, no matter how much they out-number the ruling group, and no matter how realistically, it goes against everything you preach. Duh. Look at the beginnings of our nation’s democracy and even France’s. Their’s and our democracies were “one-sided” and hypocritical. Only specific group of people were allowed to enjoy all the freedoms and liberties. Do it for democracy and following the natural flow of history, Iraq, and give in to the pressures of the extremist-clerics, and that should aid the process. (rolls eyes) My head hurts. And because you need another downer about the situation in Iraq, especially the in regards to the women and girls of the country, FGM appears to be more widespread in the region<\/a><\/strong> than previously known.<\/p>\n

In rural areas of Iraq, female genital mutilation (FGM) may be far more widespread than previously thought. WADI, a German NGO, conducted a study of over 1,500 women in a Kurdish region known as Germian, and found that 60 percent of these women reported having undergone FGM. In the absence of statistics, estimates had ranged between 10 and 40 percent of women in the Kurdish region, reports IRIN News.<\/p>\n

Many people, especially in rural areas, continue to believe that female circumcision is required by Islamic law. Senior Kurdish clerics issued a fatwa against the custom in 2002, according to the Christian Science Monitor, but information is slow to reach remote villages, where women who have not undergone FGM are considered promiscuous and unclean. Collecting data on FGM in Iraq has been difficult, as the practice is not openly acknowledged, as in parts of Africa. WADI credits its established relationships with the people of the region for allowing this study to occur. Suheila Hidayat Qadir, a WADI mobile team doctor, told IRIN that “You can’t just go into a village and ask women if they’ve been circumcised… This is a practice that goes on in secret. Nobody talks openly about it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And with the extremist-clerics clamoring for more influence in drafting the Iraqi Constitution, I wonder what will become of this situation should the clerics get what they want. Yes, with all that is happening in Iraq as of this moment, as you can tell, I’m walking on sunshine about it. But then again, I never was to begin with–certainly not when Saddam was in control. Sigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well I really can’t blame anyone who is not all that optimistic about a democracy flourishing in Iraq. The news from the area certainly doesn’t me into a “yay, they’ll have democracy, justice, human rights, and social equality soon!” mood. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,27,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-feminists-and-their-pals","category-elections-and-politics","category-international-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}