Iraqi Women’s Rights Under Threat

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/03/womens-rights-threat.html

Iraqi Women’s Rights Under Threat
By Juan Cole | Mar. 27, 2014

Few disagree that the Iraqi government’s increasingly Shia character has alienated its Sunni population—but what has mounting sectarian division meant for the rights of women and girls?

Last October, Iraq’s justice minister introduced a draft law to its Council of Ministers which would legalise child marriage and severely affect women’s rights in matters of divorce and child custody. The draft bill was so markedly discriminatory against women and girls—and in some cases so idiosyncratic—that Iraqi concerned organisations tended to dismiss it.

Article 79 of this Jaafari Personal Status Law, for example, would allow a woman to divorce her husband only if he were impotent or his penis had been amputated, whereas a man could divorce his wife for six reasons, two linked to her having a skin rash. In December the Council of Ministers shelved the draft, saying it would not vote on the bill until after legislative elections on April 30th and approval by the supreme Shia religious authority (marji’iya). On February 25th, however, it shocked many Iraqis by announcing that it had approved the bill and submitted it to Parliament.

The draft law would apply to Iraq’s Shia majority. It is based on the Jaafari school of religious jurisprudence, founded by the sixth Shia imam, Jaafar al-Sadiq. Its 254 articles would prohibit Shia Muslim men from marrying non-Muslims, permit marital rape—a husband would be entitled to have sex with his wife regardless of her consent—and prevent a woman from leaving her house without her husband’s permission. The law would grant custody over any child two or older to the father in divorce cases, lower the marriage age to nine for girls and 15 for boys, and even open the door for girls younger than nine to be married with a parent’s approval.

[newfie11]

1. Bush, your the gift that keeps on giving.

This was not happening during Saddam.