Posted by Dave on 08/25/05 at 10:28:57 am
Categories: Foreign Affairs, Feminism

From the NY Times, on women's rights in the Iraqi constitution:

Women's rights.

Shiite religious leaders want to reverse a 1959 law that settles domestic concerns-issues of marriage, divorce, and inheritance-in civil courts, and move such matters to religious courts. Under an earlier draft of the constitution, women would be stripped of their rights to inherit property on an equal basis as men, and their legal protections in case of divorce would be weakened. Some women also fear that a provision in the TAL requiring that women hold at least 25 percent of the National Assembly seats may be scrapped. Some women's groups want to boost the quota to 40 percent or greater.

I thought we were supposed to be making Iraq a better place for women, right?

So we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on this war, killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, lost almost 2,000 American troops, and for what? To create an Islamic state that will severely limit the rights of women?

And this is supposed to be better?

UPDATE: Here is some background - a look at the roles and rights of women prior to the fall of Sadam.

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