Kurdish Women Want Secular Laws
Women in Iraqi Kurdistan worry that the wording of the draft charter could open the way to Sharia law.
Kurdish Women Want Secular Laws
Women in Iraqi Kurdistan worry that the wording of the draft charter could open the way to Sharia law.
In the largely secular Kurdish-dominated north of Iraq, many women are concerned about references to Islam in the country’s new draft constitution.
The draft document which was approved by lawmakers on August 28 includes the provision that Islam, as the official state religion, is “a basic source of legislation”.
It also states that “no law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.”
Such clauses, say many Kurdish women, who are used to living in the relatively liberal environment of the Kurdistan region, could open the door to Islamic governance.
The constitution was drafted mainly by Shia Arab and Kurdish politicians, whose political parties took first and second places respectively in the January election to the National Assembly.
The document may yet be rejected, if two thirds of the voters in at least three out of Iraq’s 18 provinces vote against it in a referendum scheduled for October 15.
Sunni Arabs – who boycotted the January elections and played a lesser role in the drafting process – have vowed to do all they can to make sure that happens, as they feel the wording on federalism, in particular, will disadvantage them.
But there is also much dissatisfaction with the document amongst women in Iraqi Kurdistan, albeit for different reasons.
Ala Talabani, head of the Women’s Empowerment Organisation in Sulaimaniyah, says her group will lobby for votes against the constitution, with its blanket ban on legislation that contradicts Islam.
Dr Awreng Mohamad Qadir, a pediatrician and also a women’s rights activist, says she is concerned about the citation of Islam as a basic source of law. “We are afraid of having a religious state,” she said.
Before the draft was finalised, there was concern among Iraqi women’s groups that Islam would be named the principal source of legislation, rather than “a source”.
“I have got my freedom here in this region,” added another Kurdish woman, Shireen Osman, “and I will not allow any law to force me to do something I don’t like.”
Many women in the region would prefer to see a clear divide between religion and state.
“There should be a new civil and secular society to match other communities in the world,” said Sara Ahmed, a law student at Sulaimaniyah University. “That would present new opportunities for women to demonstrate their qualifications and capacity.”
Some in the region, though, welcome a role for Islam in state affairs.
Amina Kareem, a single mother of six who works as a cleaner in a hotel, said she knows little about the constitution. But she hopes that it will help to address the fact that young women of today have forgotten many customs of the past.
“I want a religious state to keep our inherited traditions,” she said.
Samah Samad and Safaa al-Mansoor are IWPR trainees in Iraq.
