Do Women Miss Saddam?

This is cross posted. Click on the title below to link back to its original site.

Women Miss Saddam

Posted on 01 March 2010 by admin

Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS

Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year’s maternity leave; that is now cut to six months.
By Abdu Rahman and Dahr Jamail

Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year’s maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.

Now they have Article 2 of the Constitution: “Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation.” Sub-head A says “No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.” Under this Article the interpretation of women’s rights is left to religious leaders – many of them under Iranian influence.

“The U.S. occupation has decided to let go of women’s rights,” Yanar Mohammed who campaigns for women’s rights in Iraq has said. “Political Islamic groups have taken southern Iraq, are fully in power there, and are using the financial support of Iran to recruit troops and allies. The financial and political support from Iran is why the Iraqis in the south accept this, not because the Iraqi people want Islamic law.”

With the new law has come the new lawlessness. Nora Hamaid, 30, a graduate from Baghdad University, has now given up the career she dreamt of. “I completed my studies before the invaders arrived because there was good security and I could freely go to university,” Hamaid tells IPS. Now she says she cannot even move around freely, and worries for her children every day. “I mean every day, from when they depart to when they return from school, for fear of abductions.”

Maha Sabria, professor of political science professor at Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad tells IPS that “women bear a double burden under occupation because we have lost a lot of freedom because of it. More men are now under detention, so now women bear the entire burden of the family.” And women, she says, are now under pressure to marry young in family hope that a husband will bring security.

There is 25 percent representation for women in parliament, but Sabria says “these women from party lists stand up to defend their party in the parliament, not for women’s rights.” For women in Iraq, the invasion is not over.

• Share/Bookmark/Send

____________________________________________

For more, see this, which is from *here*.

The 1970 iraqi constitution, gave iraqi women equity and liberty unmatched in the muslim world. women's rights have fallen to the lowest level in iraq's history.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewarticle&code=has20051007&articleid=1054

• Overview: women's rights in iraq "women in iraq have for many years benefited from one of the most modern and permissive societies in the middle east.
  
  http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=iraqi_constitution_and_women's_rights
• Yanar mohammed left the comfort of her toronto, canada, home to return to iraq and fight for a cause she says is overlooked in her native country -- women's rights.
  
  http://www.cnn.com/2007/world/meast/06/26/pysk.mohammed/index.html
• Some fear loss of women's rights in iraq historically, iraq has been one of the most liberal countries in the middle east when it comes to women's rights.
  
  http://abcnews.go.com/wnt/iraqcoverage/story?id=666790
• The united nations calls for a renewed commitment to promote women's rights in iraq
  
  http://ochaonline.un.org/iraq/mediacentre/pressreleases/promotewonguage/en-us/default.aspx

Women and the occupation of iraq, authors nadje al-ali, reader in but we show that in reality women's rights and women's lives have been exploited in the http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/how_do_we_rebuild_the_women_of_iraq

The international rights group madre chastises the bush administration for supporting islamist groups and allowing an erosion of women's rights in iraq. rape

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3089

Council on foreign relations, new york, n.y. isobel coleman: thank you. thank you all for women's rights, if there's any hope of pushing forward the status of women in iraq. http://www.cfr.org/publication/8114/womens_rights_in_a_new_iraq.html Rights: women's lives unraveling in occupied iraq. by mithre j. in fact, it has decisively traded women's rights for cooperation from the islamists whom http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36836 The organisation of women's freedom in iraq (owfi) commenting on the lack of rights for women in iraq currently, and as envisaged under the new constitution, http://www.equalityiniraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=ad=36:activities&itemid=53

__________________________________________

See also, this, fromhttp://www.guidocoletti.it/lkere/lfvh.php?womens-rights-organisations *here*.

Come to the un church center to hear how women are using human rights to strengthen anti-violence strategies around the world. madre is working with the feminist solidarity camp (a international network of women's rights organizations) to distribute supplies to women, children and families in haiti.our read more »
http://www.madre.org/

Standing for women's rights: now's actions against cbs and the focus on the family 2010 super bowl ad abortion and reproductive rights lesbian rights http://www.now.org/ Jakarta, 15 feb. (aki/jakarta post) - indonesian transvestites in the staunchly muslim province of aceh are demanding equal rights. they made the claim at a transvestite pageant in banda aceh where homosexuality is banned under the province's strict sharia law http://www.awid.org/  Awid.org offers the latest news, in-depth analysis, practical tools, announcements and jobs on women's rights and gender and development from around the world. in 2007-2008, awid conducted a broad survey of over 1,600 women’s rights advocates on the impact and workings of religious fundamentalisms, and has published http://www.awid.org/eng/about-awid/awid-initiatives/resisting-

Iranian and kurdish women's rights organisation funding for the front line organisations which locate and save the victims of forced marriages and honour killings has been slashed by the government, the independent has learnt. http://www.ikwro.org.uk/

Read the latest women's rights news, articles, and information at change.org. includes women's rights nonprofits and resources on feminism, gender equality, girl power, feminist movement, title 9, pro-choice movement, and much more. categories: global womens rights, reproductive rights, womens health
http://womensrights.change.org/

Womens organisastions human rights organisations we inter-act with other similar crime groups, rate payers associations, journalists, investigative units, and civil rights organisations world-wide. http://www.angelfire.com/rant/concernedpublic/ Iraqi womens rights activist facing death threats - urgent help needed the owfi calls upon all political parties, human and women’s rights organisations, and freedom loving people across the world to defend yanar mohammed and owfi’s women’s rights activists in iraq from the threats of islamic groups and http://www.indymedia.org/it/2004/02/850094.shtml Her courses usually include law and society (sosc 2350), social diversity and law (3390), and paradoxes of rights (sosc 4350). in addition to her teaching responsibilities, professor bunting has worked with a variety of human rights organisations including human rights watch (hrw), the canadian human rights foundation http://www.womensrightscoalition.org/site/about/workinggroup_e

• We, the undersigned national, regional and international human rights and women’s rights organisations and individuals, present throughout africa and the world
  http://www.africa4womensrights.org/pages/campaign-declaration/