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Historically,
Iraqi women and girls have enjoyed relatively more rights than many
of their counterparts in the Middle East. The Iraqi Provisional
Constitution (drafted in 1970) formally guaranteed equal rights to
women and other laws specifically ensured their right to vote,
attend school, run for political office, and own property. Yet,
since the 1991 Gulf War, the position of women within Iraqi society
has deteriorated rapidly. Women and girls were disproportionately
affected by the economic consequences of the U.N. sanctions, and
lacked access to food, health care, and education. These effects
were compounded by changes in the law that restricted women's
mobility and access to the formal sector in an effort to ensure jobs
to men and appease conservative religious and tribal groups.
Women's
Status in Iraq Prior to the 1991 Gulf War
After
seizing power in 1968, the secular Ba'ath party embarked on a
program to consolidate its authority and to achieve rapid economic
growth despite labor shortages.1
Women's participation was integral to the attainment of both of
these goals, and the government promulgated laws specifically aimed
at improving the status of women in the public and-to a more limited
extent-the private spheres.2
The status of Iraqi women has thus been directly linked to the
government's over-arching political and economic policies.
Until
the 1990s, Iraqi women played an active role in the political and
economic development of Iraq. A robust civil society had existed
prior to the coup d'etat in 1968, including a number of
women's organizations.3
The Ba'ath Party dismantled most of these civil society groups after
its seizure of power. Shortly thereafter it established the General
Federation of Iraqi Women (GFIW).4
The GFIW grew to play a significant role in implementing state
policy, primarily through its role in running more than 250 rural
and urban community centers offering job-training, educational, and
other social programs for women and acting as a channel for
communication of state propaganda.5
Female officers within the GFIW also played a role in the
implementation of legal reforms advancing women's status under the
law and in lobbying for changes to the personal status code.6
On the other hand, some Iraqi women have argued that as a political
arm of the Ba'ath party, the GFIW was destructive to women's issues
in Iraq and "did not reflect or represent the struggle of
millions of oppressed Iraqi women."7
The
primary legal underpinning of women's equality is contained in the
Iraqi Provisional Constitution, which was drafted by the Ba'ath
party in 1970. Article 19 declares all citizens equal before the law
regardless of sex, blood, language, social origin, or religion. In
January 1971, Iraq also ratified the International Covenants on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR), which provide equal protection under international
law to all.8
In
order to further its program of economic development, the government
passed a compulsory education law mandating that both sexes attend
school through the primary level.9
Although middle and upper class Iraqi women had been attending
university since the 1920s, rural women and girls were largely
uneducated until this time. In December 1979, the government passed
further legislation requiring the eradication of illiteracy.10
All illiterate persons between ages fifteen and forty-five were
required to attend classes at local "literacy centers,"
many of which were run by the GFIW. Although many conservative
sectors of Iraqi society refused to allow women in their communities
to go to such centers (despite potential prosecution), the literacy
gap between males and females narrowed.11
The
Iraqi government also passed labor and employment laws to ensure
that women were granted equal opportunities in the civil service
sector, maternity benefits, and freedom from harassment in the
workplace.12
Such laws had a direct impact on the number of women in the
workforce.13
The fact that the government (as opposed to the private sector) was
hiring women contributed to the breakdown of the traditional
reluctance to allow women to work outside the home.14
The Iraqi Bureau of Statistics reported that in 1976, women
constituted approximately 38.5 percent of those in the education
profession, 31 percent of the medical profession, 25 percent of lab
technicians, 15 percent of accountants and 15 percent of civil
servants.15
During the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), women assumed greater roles in
the workforce in general and the civil service in particular,
reflecting the shortage of working age men. Until the 1990s, the
number of women working outside the home continued to grow.
While
most advances in women's status occurred in the political and
economic spheres, the government also made modest changes to the
personal status laws in 1978.16
For example, divorced mothers were granted custody of their children
until the age of ten (previously seven for boys and nine for girls)
at which time, at the discretion of a state-employed judge, custody
could be extended to the child's fifteenth birthday.17
The child could then choose with which parent to live. Changes were
also made to the conditions under which a woman could seek divorce
and regulations concerning polygynous marriages and inheritance.18
These reforms reflected the Ba'ath Party's attempt to modernize
Iraqi society and supplant loyalty to extended families and tribal
society with loyalty to the government and ruling party.19
Women
attained the right to vote and run for office in 1980.20
In 1986, Iraq became one of the first countries to ratify the
Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW). While this represented a positive step for Iraqi
women, the reservations entered in regard to articles 2(f), 2(g), 9,
and 16 undermined the guarantees of equality at the heart of the
convention. Namely, these reservations sought to justify continued
application of national laws that discriminate on the basis of sex,
especially those in relation to women's and girls' rights within the
familial structure, on the grounds that they are largely dictated by
Islamic law.21
As with other countries in the region, most advancement in the
status of Iraqi women has thus occurred within the public sphere.
Women's
Status in the Post-Gulf War Years
In
the years following the 1991 Gulf War, many of the positive steps
that had been taken to advance women's and girls' status in Iraqi
society were reversed due to a combination of legal, economic, and
political factors.22
The most significant political factor was Saddam Hussein's decision
to embrace Islamic and tribal traditions as a political tool in
order to consolidate power. In addition, the U.N. sanctions imposed
after the war have had a disproportionate impact on women and
children (especially girls).23
For example, the gender gap in school enrollment (and subsequently
female illiteracy) increased dramatically due to families' financial
inability to send their children to school. When faced with limited
resources, many families chose to keep their girl children at home.24
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), as a result of the national literacy
campaign, as of 1987 approximately 75 percent of Iraqi women were
literate; however, by year-end 2000, Iraq had the lowest regional
adult literacy levels, with the percentage of literate women at less
than 25 percent.25
Women
and girls have also suffered from increasing restrictions on their
freedom of mobility and protections under the law.26
In collusion with conservative religious groups and tribal leaders,
the government issued numerous decrees and introduced legislation
negatively impacting women's legal status in the labor code,
criminal justice system, and personal status laws.27
In 2001, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Violence against Women
reported that since the passage of the reforms in 1991, an estimated
4,000 women and girls had been victims of "honor
killings."28
In recent years, both the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) administrations in northern Iraq
issued decrees suspending laws allowing for mitigation of sentences
in honor crimes, but the degree to which the suspension has been
implemented is unknown.29
Furthermore,
as the economy constricted, in an effort to ensure employment for
men the government pushed women out of the labor force and into more
traditional roles in the home. In 1998, the government reportedly
dismissed all females working as secretaries in governmental
agencies.30
In June 2000, it also reportedly enacted a law requiring all state
ministries to put restrictions on women working outside the home.31
Women's freedom to travel abroad was also legally restricted and
formerly co-educational high schools were required by law to provide
single-sex education only, further reflecting the reversion to
religious and tribal traditions.32
As a result of these combined forces, by the last years of Saddam
Hussein's government the majority of women and girls had been
relegated to traditional roles within the home.
For
information on the current situation in Iraq and issues related to
women, see the Human Rights Watch report "Climate of Fear:
Sexual Violence and Abduction of Women and Girls in Baghdad,"
(July 2003) available at
http://hrw.org/reports/2003/iraq0703/.
Additional information and reports are available at
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/iraq/.
1 Suad
Joseph, "Elite Strategies for State-Building: Women, Family,
Religion and State in Iraq and Lebanon," in Women, Islam and
the State, ed. Deniz Kandiyoti (Leiden, The Netherlands:
E.J. Brill, 1992), p. 178-79.
2 Ibid.,
pp. 178-79.
3 Such
organizations included the Women's Empowerment Society (Jameat al-Nahda
al-Nisaeya - founded in 1924), the Kurdish Women's Foundation
(founded in 1928), and the Iraqi Women's League (founded in 1951).
4 Ibid.,
pp. 182-83. The goals of the GFIW were outlined in Revolutionary
Command Council Law No. 139, December 9, 1972: (1) to fight the
enemies of a socialist, democratic Arab society; (2) to ensure the
equality of Iraqi women with men in rights, in the economy, and in
the state; (3) to contribute to the economic and social development
of Iraq by cooperating with other Iraqi organizations and by raising
the national consciousness of women; and (4) to support mothers and
children within the family structure. As of 1997, 47 percent of all
women in Iraq belonged to the organization. The Coalitional
Provisional Authority abolished the GFIW, which required Ba'ath
party membership and represented the only channel for many women to
access positions of political power, under the post-war "de-Baathification"
policy. See Coalitional Provisional Authority Order No. 1,
"De-Baathification of Iraqi Society," May 16, 2003
[online],
http://www.cpa-iraq.org/regulations/CPAORD1.pdf
(retrieved June 25, 2003).
5 Assam,
"Political Ideology and Women in Iraq," p. 87.
6 Joseph,
"Elite Strategies for State Building," p. 184.
7 "Joint
Comments by Women for a Free Iraq and Women's Alliance for a
Democratic Iraq," July 15, 2003 [online],
http://www.womenforiraq.org/winning_the_peace.doc
(retrieved August 6, 2003).
8 Iraq
ratified both the ICCPR and the ICESCR on January 25, 1971.
9 The
Compulsory Education Law 118/1976 stated that education is
compulsory and free of charge for children of both sexes from six to
ten years of age. Girls were free to leave school thereafter with
the approval of their parents or guardians. See U.N.
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women,
"Second and Third Periodic Reports of State Parties: Republic
of Iraq," CEDAW/C/IRQ/2-3, October 19, 1998, pp. 11-12.
10 The
law required illiterate adults between the ages of 15 to 45 to
participate for a two-year period in one of the many literacy
programs established by the government. Joseph, "Elite
Strategies for State-Building," p. 181.
11 It
is unclear to what degree the law was enforced, though attendance at
primary schools increased significantly. See U.N. Economic
and Social Commission for Western Asia, "Arab Women in ESCWA
Member States," E/ESCWA/STAT/1994/17, 1994, p. 88.
12 Articles
80-89 of the Unified Labor Code (originally Law 151/1970, replaced
by Law 81/1987) established "protections of working
women." Article 4 established the right to equal pay. Under the
Maternal Law of 1971, women received six months' paid maternity
leave and could take six additional months of unpaid leave.
13 Joseph,
"Elite Strategies for State-Building," p. 186. According
to a report by the General Federation of Iraqi Women, female
participation in the workforce increased from 2.5 percent of the
total labor force in 1957 to 12 percent in 1977. Another study
reports an increase from 12 percent in 1977 to 19 percent in 1980. See
Amal Sharqi, "The Progress of Women in Iraq," in Iraq:
The Contemporary State, ed. Tim Niblock (London: Croom Helm and
Exeter Centre for Arab Gulf Studies, 1982).
14 Rassam,
"Political Ideology and Women in Iraq," p. 88.
15 Ibid.,
p. 87.
16 The
Code of Personal Status was first promulgated in 1959 under the
regime of Abdal-Karim Qasim, which took power after the overthrow of
the Hashemite monarchy in July 1958. Until that time, family laws
were based on tradition or customary law and had never been
codified. Qasim was executed in 1963 and many of the family law
reforms he had implemented were reversed by the successive rulers
under religious pressure. See Joseph, "Elite Strategies
for State-Building," p. 184. See also Eric Davis, Memories
of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq,
March 2003 [online],
http://fas-polisci.rutgers.edu/~davis
(retrieved June 25, 2003).
17 Ibid.
18 Rassam,
"Political Ideology and Women in Iraq," p. 84.
19 Rassam,
"Political Ideology and Women in Iraq," p. 91. It is also
suggested that this may have been done to intimidate religious
institutions and authorities.
20 Although
given the right to run for election to the National Assembly, women
were still underrepresented in government and politics.
21 Article
2(f) and (g) requires States Parties to modify or abolish existing
laws, regulations, customs and practices (including penal
provisions) which constitute discrimination against women. Article 9
guarantees women's individual nationality rights as well as their
right to confer nationality upon their children (whereas Iraqi
Nationality Law 43/1961 allows only the father to confer nationality
upon his children). Article 16 pertains to the elimination of
discrimination in all matters relating to marriage and family
relations.
22 The
Iraqi government suffered large human and material losses in its
eight-year war with Iran. At the war's end in 1988, lower oil prices
prohibited the state from maintaining the massive social welfare
state it had created in the 1970s. These two factors led to massive
social discontent and Saddam Hussein confronted the possibility of
being overthrown. The economic impact of 1991 Gulf War further
fueled social discontent and the Ba'ath party reversed many of its
earlier social policies. In attempt to foster loyalty among tribal
and religious groups, Saddam Hussein began incorporating religious
rhetoric into the party's platform and also reinstated tribal
sheikhs as leaders, arming them and giving them land. See Sami
Zubaida, "The Rise and Fall of Civil Society in Iraq," May
2, 2003 [online], http://www.opendemocracy.
net/debates/article-2-88-953.jsp (retrieved June 25, 2003).
23 U.N.
Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (UNOCHR),
"Occasional Paper: Situation of Women in Iraq," May 28,
2003.
24 The
Government of Iraq reported that this was the case in its most
recent periodic report to CEDAW. "Second and Third Periodic
Reports of State Parties: Republic of Iraq," CEDAW/C/IRQ/2-3,
October 19, 1998, p. 12.
25 UNOCHR,
"Occasional Paper: Situation of Women in Iraq," p. 1.
26 Ibid.
27 For
example, in March 1990, a presidential decree was issued exempting
men who kill or assault their female relatives in defense of their
family's honor from prosecution and punishment, resulting in a
resurgence of a practice that had markedly decreased. U.N.
Commission on Human Rights, "Report of the Special Rapporteur
on Violence against Women," E/CN.4/2002/83, January 31, 2002.
Under the decree, a male defendant accused of murder or assault of a
female relative may plead as a defense that he was motivated by a
real or perceived breach of family honor. In murder cases, this
defense can result in the reduction of the minimum prison term from
eight years to six months.
28 Ibid.
29 "Iraqi
Kurds Amend Law to Reduce Honor Crimes," AFP, 14 August
2002; UNOCHR, "Occasional Paper: Situation of Women in
Iraq," p. 4.
30 "Saddam
Bans Iraqi Women from Work," June 15, 2000 [online],
http://www.iraqfoundation.org/news/
2000/fjun/15_womenbanned.html
(retrieved June 25, 2003).
31 Ibid.
32 Women
under age forty-five were prohibited from leaving the country unless
accompanied by a male relative
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