IRAQI ISLAMIC PARTY WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000515

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2011
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KCOR KDEM KWMN IZ
SUBJECT: IRAQI ISLAMIC PARTY WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
STRESS CONCERNS OVER CORRUPTION AND DETAINEES

Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT S. FORD, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B)
AND (D).


1. (C) Summary. Maysoon Ahmad Bekr, head of women's
programs for the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP),and Shatha Abd
al-Razzak, IIP member of the Council of Representatives from
Salah al-Din province and a member of the Iraq's Promise
(Ahad al-Iraq) movement, told Poloff February 16 that the IIP
women's program office is concerned about preserving existing
protections for women's rights through implementing
legislation under the new Iraqi constitution. This office
and the human rights office of the IIP are also concerned
about helping women whose male relatives have been detained
by government and Coalition forces. They noted that such
detentions are having a devastating effect on families, and
the Ministry of Interior is not cooperating in locating those
who are "missing." Bekr and Razzak also expressed concern
about increasing corruption in Iraqi society, and reacted
positively to Poloff's suggestion that the Council of
Representatives would have the right under the constitution
and principles of democracy to demand of the executive branch
openness, transparency and accountability in government
budgeting and contracting decisions. End summary.


2. (C) Maysoon Ahmad Bekr, head of women's programs for the
Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP),and Shatha Abd al-Razzak, IIP
member of the Council of Representatives (CoR) from Salah
al-Din province and a member of the Iraq's Promise (Ahad
al-Iraq) movement, told Poloff February 16 that the IIP
women's program office is concerned about preserving existing
protections for women's rights through implementing
legislation under the new Iraqi constitution. Razzak and
Bekr (who said she was likely to become a member of the CoR
if other IIP members became cabinet officials) said that they
did not speak for the IIP, but only for themselves. Razzak
said that existing Iraqi personal status law was satisfactory
in providing, for example, for civil courts to resolve family
law disputes. They said they would propose minor changes to
it, but nothing significant. They argued that if people
wanted to avail themselves of religious courts to resolve
such disputes, that should be up to the couple in question.
They suggested that the judge performing a civil wedding
could ask the couple whether the marriage would be governed
by civil law, Sunni religious law, or Shia religious law.


3. (C) Razzak described how Iraqi child custody laws worked
in practice. As a general proposition, a child over the age
of 10 years can offer an opinion whether to live with the
father or the mother -- sometimes, the child will express a
preference to live with a grandparent. Custody of a child
under the age of 10 is presumptively with the mother, if she
wants custody. Iraqi law gives the mother the right to stay
in the family home for three years after a divorce, even if
the father must pay rent on the house in the meantime. This
is considered an improvement over the minimal standards in
Islamic law, Razzak said, which provides for only three
months' maintenance and hopes that the couple will reconcile
during that period.

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CONCERN OVER MISSING DETAINEES
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4. (C) Razzak and Bekr said that while the IIP runs a full
range of women's programs, including courses on how to use
computers, sewing and other skills; cultural programs and
educational programs, a program getting increasing resources
-- "90 percent of time in (party) headquarters" -- is helping
women whose male relatives have been detained. They said
that most complaints now concern detention by Iraqi forces,
not the Coalition. Detention of the male breadwinner of a
family often has devastating consequences on female relatives
and children who may be dependent on the man for an income.
Most complaints -- 80 percent, Bekr said -- concern the
detention of a husband or a son. They try to make sure "no
woman leaves IIP headquarters unhappy," but financial support
is relatively rare. Most of the time information and an
assurance that someone will look into the matter is what the
women crave the most.


5. (C) Razzak and Bekr said that the IIP gets information
from women on the time and place of the detention, and a
description of the people making the arrest. They then try
through political connections to find out what happened, but
are unsuccessful more often than not. "The police are not
giving out information about detainees," Bekr said. "People
are starting to be desperate about not knowing the
whereabouts of their men."


6. (C) The result of the failure of the police to give basic

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information on the whereabouts of those detained is causing
neighborhoods to polarize, with Sunni neighborhoods in
Baghdad beginning to look to their own neighborhood militias
to provide security that keeps out other security, i.e., the
Iraqi police. "My hope is we never reach a situation like
Beirut, when neighborhoods are separated," said Bekr.

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TRANSPARENCY IN BUDGETING
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7. (C) Asked what they thought should be among the
priorities for the CoR after government formation is settled,
Razzak jumped on the issue of corruption. "The budget should
be transparent," she said, noting that right now, virtually
no one -- beyond a small handful of top officials -- knows
how much the government really receives, from where, and how
the money is actually spent. The average Iraqi does not know
what is going on, but assumes those at the top are enriching
themselves through corruption.


8. (C) Poloff responded by pointing out that in a democracy,
the executive branch is subject to the power of the
legislative branch to demand an accounting of government
receipts and expenditures. In democracies that produce
significant amounts of oil and gas, for example, information
about reserves, production, revenues and contracting is
considered public information. The issue of openness and
transparency in government budgeting and expenditure is one
in which reform-minded parliamentarians may find themselves
working across ethnic and sectarian lines. CoR member-elect
Razzak was interested in learning more about how she, as a
parliamentarian, could become an effective advocate for
greater openness and transparency in Iraqi government
budgeting, contracting and expenditure.

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COMMENT
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9. (C) Comment. Bekr, as the more senior of the two IIP
women activists, manages overall IIP women's programs, and is
interested in the concerns of the women who come to the IIP
for help, no matter what the issue. Razzak is one of the
more promising politicians of the "next generation" in the
IIP. She expressed readiness to listen and to learn. No
woman in a party like the IIP whose roots are in the Muslim
Brotherhood will have much clout today, but if her
willingness to speak out continues and can be supported, she
may become a force to be reckoned with. We are hopeful that
her interest in learning about how to more effectively
advocate for budget transparency will be echoed by other
parliamentarians. We will pursue efforts to assist Iraqi
politicians and legislators in understanding the political
economy of Iraq and the effect that public integrity can have
in advancing democracy and Iraq's economic development. End
comment.
KHALILZAD