Guest Post by Zoe Kentucky
I know we’ve been given more reasons than we can remember, but the the most prominent justification has become this– to help spread freedom and democray in the Middle East, right?
Not surprisingly that one isn’t quite true either.
Apparently our true goal was to turn a secular government into a theocratic state and set back women’s rights in the country 30 years.
“The draft aborts the democratic process Iraqis hoped for and is a big victory for political Islam,” said writer Adel Abdel-Amir. “Islamic law, not the people, has become the source of authority.”
The draft says Islam is the official religion of the state and there can be no law that contradicts the “fixed principles of its rulings”. The preamble says the constitution responds to “the call of our religious and national leaders and the insistence of our great religious authorities”.
Language guaranteeing “rights and freedoms” is subordinate to the primary position given to Islam, opponents say.
“Human rights should not be linked to Islamic Sharia law at all. It should be listed separately in the constitution,” said Safia Souhail, Iraq’s ambassador to Egypt.
The prominent women’s rights campaigner denounced wording that grants each religious sect the right to run its own family courts — apparently doing away with previous civil codes — as an open door to further Islamicise the legal system.
Although in practice, many Iraqis end up having recourse to religious authorities or informal tribal law, the idea of a united civil code is central to the modern state, Souhail said.
“This will lead to creating religious courts. But we should be giving priority to the law,” she said.
“When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women. But look what has happened — we have lost all the gains we made over the last 30 years. It’s a big disappointment.”
I think that is putting it rather mildly. But who is this woman? We last saw her in January in the balcony during Bush’s State of the Union address. She’s the one Bush pointed to and said that her father was killed by Saddam Hussein’s secret service. At that time Safia Souhail was very supportive of our invasion, for she believed that her country’s future would be brighter and she could return to Iraq. I think it’s safe to say that she’s less enthusiastic about that now.
So does anyone else see democracy and the western concept of freedom spreading like wildfire in the Middle East based on Iraq’s new constitution? Or will other Middle Eastern countries react more like this, “Hey, Iraq, welcome to the club! You’re now more like us than you were before! Thank you America!”
(deep sigh)