Why Iraqi women aren't complaining
Their
secular family law is about to be overturned and placed under religious
control. So where's the outcry?
Haifa Zangana
Iraqi family law is the most progressive in the
Middle East. Divorce cases are heard only in the civil courts (effectively
outlawing the "repudiation" religious divorce); polygamy is outlawed
unless the first wife welcomes it (and very few do); and women divorcees have
an equal right to custody of their children.
The "liberators" of Iraq can take no
credit for this. The secular family code was introduced in 1959. Saddam Hussein
weakened its inheritance provisions but left it mostly unchanged. Now it is
under threat from the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. IGC resolution 137
will, if implemented, eliminate the idea of civil marriage and place several
aspects of family law - including divorce and inheritance rights - directly
under the control of religious authorities.
I was in Baghdad when the resolution was
issued, on my first visit home since 1975 when, fearful for my life and the
safety of my family, I left the country of my birth. I noticed with amazement
how little attention any of the women I met paid to resolution 137. Only 100
women demonstrated in the city's Firdose Square to condemn it. Where was the
outcry?
I had been terrified that my years away would
have made me a stranger. But the minute I stepped into my family's house, I was
at home. Over countless cups of Turkish coffee, I asked every woman I met why
she seemed not to give a damn about a resolution that is surely going to change
women's lives for the worse. I was met with kind smiles and the same weary
reply: it's not going to change a thing.
Ten months after their "liberation",
Iraqi women have only just started to leave their houses to carry out ordinary
tasks such as taking their kids to school, shopping or visiting neighbours.
They do so despite the risk of kidnapping or worse. It is women and children
who bear the brunt of the absence of law and order, the lack of security and
the availability of weapons.
Ten months on, most women graduates are still
unemployed. Seventy-two per cent of working Iraqi women were public employees,
and the public sector is in tatters. Other workers are suffering too. My niece,
Luma, is a biologist. She was unemployed during Saddam's era because she wasn't
a member of the Ba'ath party. She is unemployed now because she refused to get
a tazkia (a recommendation form) from one of the main political parties
represented in the IGC.
As a housewife and a mother, her daily life,
like that of most Iraqi women, follows the same tedious routine: get gas for
the cooker (make sure the cylinder doesn't leak - gas explosions are not
unusual); buy oil (make sure it's not mixed with water); buy petrol for the car
(she will queue for three hours, but the men's queues are even longer so the
task falls to her).
At the sound of special hooting many of
Baghdad's women rush outdoors to pay the refuse collectors to collect the
rubbish (in the heart of old Baghdad, rubbish piles as high as the buildings.
Women and children search there for anything they can sell or eat).
The electricity supply hasn't improved in the
past 10 months either, despite Paul Bremer's claims. In my family's house in
Palestine Street, a middle-class area, the women have to deal with three
different supply sources to get just 12 hours of power a day. The first source
is the national grid, from which we receive electricity for two hours then are
cut off for three (we're lucky - in al-Adhamia the on/off ratio is 2:4;
residents there believe that they are being punished because they support the
resistance). The second source is the local mosque, which acquired a generator
during the looting and now supplies 100 houses with three hours of electricity
per day. The third source is the house generator, which must be handled with
special care. To add to the general misery, there is still no postal service in
the country and no telephone services in most areas.
There has been no shortage of initiatives to
"enlighten" Iraqi woman and encourage them to play an active role in
the country's reconstruction. In one, the Department for International
Development and the Foreign Office declared "the need, urgently, for a
women's tent meeting in Baghdad with a declaration in compliance with
1325".
Patricia Hewitt tried to establish a high
council for Iraqi women. Condoleezza Rice opened a centre for women's human
rights in Diwanya. In her opening speech - delivered via satellite - she
assured Iraqi women that "we are with you in spirit". It was attended
by commanders and soldiers of the occupying forces, but by very few Iraqi
women. Meanwhile in Diwanya itself, local farmers (many of them women) were
unable to start the winter season because of unexploded cluster bombs on their
land.
Iraqi political parties are also desperate to
employ women to boost their own credibility. So why are Iraqi women not
welcoming the chance to be a model for others in the Middle East?
Over countless coffees, the women explain. They
are educated, resilient and survivors of atrocities of Saddam's regime. They
replaced male workers during the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war, and set up
cottage industries to support their families during 13 years of brutal
sanctions. They are not about to forgive the US or British governments for
strengthening Saddam's regime, imposing sanctions, and destroying their cities
in two wars. Iraqi women know that the occupation forces are in the country to
guard their own interests, not those of the Iraqis.
In refusing to take part in any initiative by
the US-led occupation, or its Iraqi allies, women are practising passive
resistance. They adopted the same technique against Saddam's despised General
Union of Iraqi women. Then, they managed to cause the collapse of one of the
richest, most powerful institutions for women in the Middle East. Perhaps they
will do so again.
Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist and
painter. She is a former political prisoner of the Ba'ath regime
February 2004
haifa_zangana@yahoo.co.uk
This article was originally published in Guardian Newspaper , the author has kindly agreed
That we can use it in Iran Bulletin.