Sharia, Again in Iraq?     2/5/2004
By Janice Shaw Crouse

Competing Muslim Factions Threaten Freedom and Women's Equality

Perhaps nothing illustrates the hard-won liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq any more than the freedom of their women –– symbolized by, for instance, the removal of burqas, sending girls back to school and bringing women back into public life.

But nothing threatens that liberation any more than a naïve understanding of Islamic factions –– specifically how some Muslims interpret Islamic law to prevail over individual liberty, human rights and freedom, especially for women and girl children.

I used to teach parliamentary procedure which is based on the premise that rules of order for conducting a meeting must ensure that the majority prevails while seeing that the minority’s rights are respected and their views freely and completely expressed. Likewise, freedom means that all have the right to be respected and to express their views freely and completely. That freedom is the essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; that everyone has the right of “freedom of thought, conscience and religion.” Those same individual freedoms are essential in the broader, community or national context; democracy means that the majority prevails, though minority rights are fully protected.

Both individual rights and democracy are at risk now in Iraq, just as they were previously in Afghanistan. The new Afghan constitution is not all that it should be; it establishes institutional religious rights but fails to protect individual religious freedom. The new Iraqi constitution is not merely important for Iraq; it will also be a model for the whole Middle East. It must not be overlooked that the November 15 agreement mandates religious freedom as an integral aspect of the new constitution.

Iraq’s Governing Council will complete the drafting of the interim constitution by the end of this month –– February 28 –– and that constitution will be in place until the permanent constitution is enacted –– not before mid-2005. At present, there are very real threats to the separation of church and state in Iraq: there is a big difference between the “freedom of worship” and the “freedom of religion,” just as there are significant differences between “religious rites” and “religious rights.”

Certain Islamist groups are seeking to establish an Islamic state and to bring back sectarian laws such as Sharia (which directly affects women’s freedoms by limiting their involvement in public life as well as affecting inheritance and domestic laws). The conflict between the various Muslim groups is a power struggle with significant and long-range ramifications for freedom, democracy and the equality of women. It is not an exaggeration to say that ultimately the outcome will determine whether Iraq remains free and whether Iraqi women and children will have equal status and opportunity as citizens.

Two prominent women in Iraq have already felt the strong arm of Sharia. A woman lawyer in Najaf was dismissed from her job by a Shiite cleric who declared that judges must be “sane, mature and male.” The woman deputy minister of agriculture, Dr. Sawson al-Sharafi, is under attack because some Islamists do not want to work for a woman.

In the same way, if Islam becomes the state religion, religious liberty will be curtailed by the extremists who are already introducing resolutions and proposals that seek to overturn religious neutrality and women’s equality. We must never forget that religious freedom is essential to democracy and individual liberties.

Nigeria is learning this lesson the hard way. Examples abound: 23 Christian women have been brought before Islamic courts charged with non-compliance of the Muslim dress code, prostitution (being unmarried and older than 13 years), or refusal to marry early. At the University of Maiduguri in Borno state, female students have been forced to adhere to the Islamic dress code in order to sit for exams, some are being expelled from the university. Eleven female nurses were fired in Azare when they refused to change their nurse uniforms for Islamic attire.

Individual religious liberty and women’s equality must be guaranteed in Iraq’s interim constitution, otherwise all that we have fought for in the Middle East will be lost –– not just for Iraq and its citizens, but for the United States’ interests and democratic values as well.

Dr. Janice Crouse, Senior Fellow, The Beverly LaHaye Institute, was a U.S. delegate to the 2003 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Printer Friendly Version