Deputy Special Representative of The United Nations Assistance Mission
for Iraq (UNAMI), Claudio Cordone, commended the role of the Iraqi
government in addressing violence against women and supporting women's
rights.
During
the Conference on Combating Violence Against Women, which was followed
by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), Cordone stated: "I commend the Iraqi
government's commitment to combating violence against women and
supporting the rights of Iraqi women in general. I also welcome the role
of the Prime Minister in urging government bodies to expedite the
implementation of decisions related to women
What a load of garbage. As RUDAW notes today:
The Iraqi government’s council for women’s affairs will hold a meeting
to discuss concerns that a highly-controversial proposed amendment to
the Personal Status Law could walk back human rights in the country,
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani announced on Saturday.
“The Higher Council for Women will soon hold a specialized workshop to
discuss all the observations raised regarding the Personal Status Law,”
Sudani said during an event for the Islamic day for the elimination of
violence against women.
Rights activists have strongly protested the bill to amend the 1959
Personal Status Law, which would effectively legalize child marriage and
give religious authorities regulatory power over inheritance and
marriage.
The Iraqi parliament conducted the first reading for the bill on Sunday,
but has yet to vote on the amendment. If it is passed, Iraqis would be
allowed to choose either Shiite or Sunni rules at the time of marriage
to govern all personal status-related matters in their family.
The proposed bill specifies following the provisions of the Jaafari
school of jurisprudence for the Shiite sect, which permits marriage for
girls as young as nine and boys at fifteen.
THE GUARDIAN's Zainab Al Mashat and Omar Al Jaffal noted Friday:
The Shia religious groups that dominate the political system in Iraq have been pushing to erode women’s rights in the country for more than a decade.
Unlike neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Iraq does not have a system of male guardianship requiring women to have the permission of a husband, father or male guardian to make crucial life choices such as marriage.
However, a new proposal, which passed its first reading in the Iraqi parliament this week, would give religious authorities the power to decide on family affairs, including marriage, divorce and the care of children
“This is a catastrophe for women,” said Raya Faiq, who is the coordinator for a coalition of groups which are opposing the law change. The group includes some Iraqi MPs.
“My husband and my family oppose child marriage. But imagine if my daughter gets married and my daughter’s husband wants to marry off my granddaughter as a child. The new law would allow him to do so. I would not be allowed to object. This law legalises child rape.”
During protests organised by the coalition this week in the capital, Baghdad, and in several other cities in Iraq, supporters of the new law confronted opponents and accused them of “moral decadence” and “following western agendas”.
Although Iraq has outlawed marriage under the age of 18 since the 1950s, one survey by the UN children’s agency, Unicef, found that 28% of girls in Iraq had married before they reached the age of 18.
This is what the US invasion of Iraq created. No democracy was built. No weapons of mass destruction were in Iraq. But the US government did manage to install a bunch of cowards who fled Iraq and to promote religious extremists. And now we're really seeing the damage from US "assistance" to Iraq.
