Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BAGHDAD1579
2009-06-17 15:38:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Baghdad
Cable title:  

IRAQI WOMEN STRUGGLE OVER HOW BEST TO ENSURE THEIR

Tags:  IZ KDEM KIRF KWMN PGOV SOCI 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO1403
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #1579/01 1681538
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 171538Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3501
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 001579 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2019
TAGS: IZ KDEM KIRF KWMN PGOV SOCI
SUBJECT: IRAQI WOMEN STRUGGLE OVER HOW BEST TO ENSURE THEIR
RIGHTS

REF: A. BAGHDAD 887

B. 2008 BAGHDAD 3006

Classified By: Classified by Acting Political Counselor John Fox for re
ason 1.4(d)

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 001579

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2019
TAGS: IZ KDEM KIRF KWMN PGOV SOCI
SUBJECT: IRAQI WOMEN STRUGGLE OVER HOW BEST TO ENSURE THEIR
RIGHTS

REF: A. BAGHDAD 887

B. 2008 BAGHDAD 3006

Classified By: Classified by Acting Political Counselor John Fox for re
ason 1.4(d)

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) Sunni and Kurdish women Parliamentary leaders are
pushing Parliament's Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) to
amend Article 41 of the Iraqi Constitution to strike language
stipulating that the personal status of Iraqis is determined
by their religion and sect. These MPs fear that if it is not
amended, Article 41 will eventually provide the legal basis
for overturning Law 188, Iraq's current personal status law,
which includes numerous protections for women in matters
relating to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child
custody. Women MPs in Iraq's Shi'a Islamic parties have a
different view. They see Law 188, promulgated in 1959, as
"Communist" and contrary to Shia Islamic law. For pro-Law
188 MPs, the constitutional review process is the last best
chance to amend Article 41, since the parliamentary approval
requirement for CRC-proposed amendments is an absolute
majority as opposed to the two-thirds requirement that will
go into effect after the CRC process concludes. However,
advocates of amending Article 41 face very difficult odds in
this election year, with opposition from the main Shi'a
Islamic parties Dawa, ISCI, and the Sadrists. This debate
has heated up recently because the CRC plans to complete its
work in the coming weeks, but the larger argument -- should
personal status be civilly or religiously based -- has been
going on for many years. End summary.

-------------- ---
The Constitutional Review Process and Article 41
-------------- ---


2. (U) Per ref A, the 27-member Constitutional Review
Committee (CRC) of the Iraqi Parliament -- a body established
by Article 142 of the Iraqi Constitution -- has been trying
on and off for the past four years to draft a package of
amendments to the Iraqi Constitution. The Committee appears
to be heading into the final weeks of deliberation,
reportedly having already agreed to approximately 50
amendments, with a few still to be debated. Once the CRC

passes its amendments to the full Parliament, approval will
require an absolute majority vote in the Parliament and then
ratification in a national referendum. (Note: We will
provide an update on the CRC's recent activities septel. End
note.) Once this process is complete, the CRC will be
dissolved and all future Constitutional amendments will
require the approval of two-thirds of the Iraqi Parliament
plus a national referendum, assuming the current provision
regarding amendments, Article 126, remains as is.


3. (C) In separate meetings, several women MPs, including
Shatha al-Obosi (Tawafuq, Human Rights Committee),Ala
Talabani (PUK, Head of Civil Society Committee),Dr. Nada
Ibrahim (National Dialogue Front, Women's Committee),and
Maysoon al-Damluji (INL, Women's Committee) told Poloff that
they are pushing the CRC to alter Article 41 of the Iraqi
Constitution to remove the language that gives every Iraqi
citizen choice as to how his or her personal status will be
determined, based on his or her religion and sect. At
present, Article 41 of the Iraqi Constitution states that
"Iraqis are free in their commitment to their personal status
according to their religions, sects, beliefs, or choices, and
this shall be regulated by law." These women MPs are
proposing to replace that language with a guarantee to
organize personal status by law, which would ostensibly
Qguarantee the continuation of Law 188.

--------------
Law 188: The Bedrock of Iraqi Women's Rights
--------------


4. (C) Despite its having been part of the Iraqi Constitution
for the past four years, all four MPs told Poloff that if
Article 41 is allowed to survive the Article 142
constitutional amendment process unchanged, and thus becomes
a permanent feature of the constitution, it would eventually
be used as the legal basis for undermining the current
personal status law, Law 188. They argued that Law 188,
which dates from 1959, includes numerous protections for
women in matters relating to marriage, divorce, inheritance
and child custody. Dr. Ibrahim told Poloff that there was
wide consensus among educated Iraqis that Law 188 was the
best law in the Middle East with respect to women's rights
because it incorporated the most protective elements for
women from the four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence,

BAGHDAD 00001579 002 OF 003


as well as Shi'a religious law. Al-Obosi dismissed criticism
that Law 188 was not adequately Islamic, noting that "90% of
it is based on Sharia." (Note: Members of Iraq's Christian
community are currently drafting a separate personal status
law for themselves because they do not like many of the
Islamic provisions of Law 188 (ref B). End note.)

--------------
Opposition to Law 188
--------------


5. (C) In explaining who was in favor of having personal
status determined by religion and sect rather than by Law
188, Ala Talabani told Poloff that Shi'a Islamic parties
within Parliament viewed Law 188 as "Communist" and thus
wanted it abolished. Al-Obosi was more specific, stating
that the Dawa party wants Article 41 as is and that it is
willing to "fight" for it. Salma Jabou, the head of the
Development and Training Widows Center NGO and wife of Deputy
Foreign Minister Labid Abbawi, said that the proposed
amendment went as far back as the early 1960s when Ayatollah
Muhesn al-Hakim, father of current ISCI leader Abdul Aziz
al-Hakim, tried unsuccessfully to have Law 188 repealed. The
debate emerged once again during the days of the Iraqi
Governing Council. Jabou, Ibrahim, Talabani, and Damluji
also relayed the story of how on December 31, 2003, Abdul
Aziz al-Hakim had repealed Law 188 on the last day of his
term as President of the Iraqi Governing Council, only to
have his decision overturned by his successor, Adnan
Pachachi. The political struggle over the current Article 41
has been ongoing since its insertion into the Iraqi
Constitution four years ago.

-------------- --------------
The Debate over the Consequences of Law 188's Demise
-------------- --------------


6. (C) Al-Obosi, Talabani, Ibrahim, and Damluji each warned
that abrogation of Law 188 would lead to a system in which
every Iraqi's personal status was determined by religion and
sect, which would lead to "judicial anarchy." They argued
that Article 41 will eventually require courts for each of
the four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, plus another
system for the Shi'a, and others that would deal with
minority groups on issues related to marriage, divorce,
inheritance, and child custody. They worried that a system
with so many competing regulations governing these issues
would be naturally disadvantageous to women as men would seek
to use the court of the sect most advantageous to them.
Talabani was more specific in her concern that, if personal
status of Iraqi citizens was based on religion, it would
undermine statutes that prevent children under the age of 18
from being married. She worried that girls as young as 13
would be forced to marry if Law 188 was abrogated and
personal status decisions devolved to religious authorities.


7. (C) As a supporter of the unamended Article 41, Dr. Samira
al-Musawi (UIA, Head of the Women and Children's Committee)
dismissed these worst-case scenarios, arguing that any Iraqi
couple would first have to agree under which sect's rules
they would be married and that all subsequent decisions
regarding this couple would have to be adjudicated by this
sect and no other. She also dismissed Law 188 as having been
put in place by an unelected government and said that,
because Law 188 drew upon Sunni schools of Islamic
jurisprudence, it was unfair to the Shia who wanted to be
governed by their own religious law. The acting Minister of
State for Women's Affairs, Dr. Khulud al-Majun, seconded this
idea, telling Poloff that if anything, Article 41 gave Iraqis
Qidea, telling Poloff that if anything, Article 41 gave Iraqis
more freedom, not less. Dr. al-Majun also argued that
separate religious courts were unnecessary because every
Iraqi judge was already an expert in all of the schools of
Islamic law and could simply apply the one that was requested
by those seeking to be married or divorced.

--------------
Division Within the Women's Caucus
--------------


8. (C) In a press release dated May 14, a group of eight
women MPs including al-Obosi, Damlugi, Tania Gilly (PUK),
Kamila Ibrahim Badi (KDP),Judge Zakia Haki (Independent
Kurd),Asma Adnan (Tawafuq),Alia Naseef Jasim (INL),and
Samia Azeez (PUK) publicly raised their concerns, stating
that Article 41 as it stands will "open the door for
arbitrary Fatwas affecting the destinies of families, which
will lead to the disintegration of families and consolidate
sectarianism." On June 8, Damluji told Poloff that the
petition released to the press on May 14 had gained 70
signatures within the Parliament. Following up on the press
release, Zakia Hakki, Iraq's first female judge, took to the
airwaves on Al Hurra on June 1 to raise her concerns again on

BAGHDAD 00001579 003 OF 003


Article 41. On June 4, NGO leader Salma Jabou told Poloff
that she had hosted a group of women MPs in her home the
night before to discuss Article 41, but that no consensus had
been reached. Damluji told Poloff that she had hosted a
conference on June 13 that involved judges, the head of the
Lawyers Union, and several MPs, with the objective of
generating as much press attention to the issue as possible.
On the flip side, Dr. al-Musawi was downcast when she
explained to Poloff that, as the head of the Women's
Committee in Parliament, she had been unsuccessful in forging
a compromise among women MPs concerning the article and how
best to amend it. She said that she had listened to
everyone, but that the range of opinions was too wide to
allow consensus.


9. (C) In response to a query from Poloff, Dr. Ibrahim,
Talabani, and Damluji were extremely pessimistic that their
efforts to amend Article 41 would succeed. Dr. Ibrahim said
that the effort had the support of the Kurdish coalition,
Tawafuq, the National Dialogue Front, the Iraqi National List
and a few Sadrists. Nevertheless, the push from Dawa, ISCI
and the vast majority of the Sadrists, along with votes that
this bloc would be able to peel away from the Kurdish
coalition, would be too great an obstacle to overcome. We
will continue to monitor these political dynamics closely.
FORD