Supporters say Article
41 will keep the state out of civil affairs. Critics say it will usher in
Sharia.
BAGHDAD -- It has been nearly 30 years since she got
married, but Iraqi legislator Samira Musawi still bristles at what she considers
the ultimate indignity: a law requiring witnesses to certify the
rite.
She and her husband-to-be grabbed a couple of strangers, gave them
each about $10 and were legally wed.
"I didn't
even know these people; they could have been thugs," Musawi said of the men who
validated the 1979 civil ceremony in a west Baghdad court.
That memory is
one reason Musawi, who heads parliament's Women, Family and Childhood Committee,
supports Article 41, a clause in Iraq's interim constitution that supporters say
will prevent state meddling in civil affairs by allowing Iraqis to marry,
divorce, decide inheritances and settle other personal issues according to their
religious sect. For example, under Shiite law, no witnesses are required for a
marriage, but Sunnis require two.
But a fight over the article's
potential effect has presented a stumbling block to lawmakers trying to finalize
a constitution by year's end.
Article 41 is just one line in the 16-page
document, but to critics, it is the worst.
Opponents, including women's
rights activists and legal scholars, say the one poorly worded sentence opens
the door to rule by draconian interpretations of Islamic law that could sanction
the stoning of adulterous women, allow underage girls to be forced into marriage
and permit men to abandon their wives by declaring, "I divorce you," three
times.
In the southern city of Basra, there are already signs of
religious extremism being used to rein in women. Police say gangs enforcing
their idea of Islamic law have killed 15 women in the last month. "There are
gangs roaming through the streets . . . pursuing women and carrying out threats
and killing because of what the women wear or because they are using makeup,"
the Basra police commander, Maj. Gen. Abdul Jaleel Khalaf, said this
month.
Sometimes notes are left on the women's bodies saying they were
killed for violating religious law or social traditions.
"This is a
mockery for us, when you speak about freedom," said Hanaa Edwar, who heads the
Iraqi Amal Assn., a human rights group opposing Article 41. "There will be no
choices for women if a man makes a decision that he wants to live a certain way.
Step by step, we will end up in a religious state."
The controversy
highlights the broader debate here over how large a role religion should play in
Iraqis' lives. It also underscores shortfalls of the original constitution,
which was drafted in 2005 by newly elected Iraqi legislators facing a
U.S.-imposed deadline. Redrafting the document is one of the benchmarks sought
by the Bush administration to set the stage for an eventual U.S. troop
withdrawal. But it has been delayed three times as lawmakers haggle over issues
such as provincial powers, religious and cultural freedoms, and distribution of
oil revenue.
There are only two women on the 25-member committee in
charge of rewriting the constitution. They face formidable opposition from the
Shiite Muslim lawmakers who dominate Iraq's parliament, including Humam Hamoodi,
who heads the panel.
Hamoodi, whose robes and turban attest to religious
devotion, scoffs at opposition to Article 41. "You're considering it a big
deal!" he said, laughing. "This is a kind of liberty and freedom. This is the
age of democracy."
Musawi agreed. A Shiite who wears a prim black tunic
and a leopard-print head scarf, Musawi says she does not want non-Muslims to be
governed by her beliefs. Article 41 ensures this cannot happen, she
said.
But, she said, it also recognizes the reality in post-Saddam
Hussein Iraq, where most lawmakers, including many of the 75 women in the
275-seat parliament, represent Shiite religious parties.
"If you ask me
if I want a theocratic society, I will tell you no. But at the same time, I
cannot ignore the fact that religion is part of our existence, and we have to
accept that," Musawi said.
For many Iraqi women, the reminder of what is
at stake became clear in May when a video circulated of a 17-year-old girl being
dragged through a mob of braying men, who pelted her to death with rocks and
paving stones. The girl, whose gruesome death was captured on several cellphone
cameras, had violated the rules of her minority Yazidi sect by having a
relationship with a Muslim man.Her killing and the reprisal attacks on Yazidis
that ensued illustrate the problems inherent in not having a single law covering
all Iraqis' domestic affairs, critics of Article 41 say.
Three of the
girl's cousins are in prison awaiting trial in connection with her death. Many
Yazidis have condemned the incident but also say it is an internal tribal issue
that does not warrant attention from the media or outsiders. That attitude
troubles women's rights activists, who say that religion and tribal culture
could be used as shields for perpetrators of such violence.
"I am sure we
will be hearing stories like this over and over again," said Luma Ali, a
23-year-old engineering student who opposes any role for religion in government.
"I cannot believe this is still happening to us women."
"It is really an
insecure world for women in Iraq," said a female friend, who was afraid to give
her name. "Everything is subject to development in Iraq -- everything except the
way women should live, marry and
die."