04.02.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

New family law on hold ("original document") [ID 9997]

"Women's groups in Iraq have cautiously welcomed a decision by the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) to shelve a proposal for a new family law, which would have discriminated against women, critics say.

The decision to implement the law has been put on hold after widespread dissatisfaction expressed by women's rights activists. The proposal for the 'Personal Status Law' as it's known was for marriage, divorce, custody and child support, inheritance and all other aspects of family law to be dealt with by Shari'at courts under Islamic law.

But chairman of the IGC, Adnan al-Pachachi, has confirmed that the decision under Act 137 was on hold at least temporarily. “The original law cannot be annulled by a decision. It can only be annulled by another law. So the Personal Status Law of 1959 will not be annulled unless with another law, which is unlikely to happen in the near future,” he told reporters.

Nidal Abed, an activist and a member in the Iraqi Women's Link group, the oldest feminist organisation in the country formed in 1952, told IRIN that although Act 137 was put on hold, it could be implemented later.

She emphasised the importance of keeping the law in place. “This current personal status law was issued in 1959 under the president Abdel Karin Qasim. The law stemmed from Islamic Shari’at, its items were collected from Sunni and Shiite jurisprudence,” she said.

Earlier in January, Iraqi women’s rights activists held a conference at the Al-Sayd Club in Baghdad in response to the 29 December 2003 decision by the IGC to pass a bill cancelling what is known as the “Personal Status Law,” a set of rules that had long provided opportunities for and protected the rights of women in Iraq.

The Iraqi Women's Link was one of the major protestors who demonstrated three times against the law along with other women's group from different ethnic backgrounds. Around 5,000 Kurdish women had also marched in the northeastern Iraq town of Sulaymaniyah in protest at the recent IGC decision, while in the Shi’ite town of Najaf, some 500 women demonstrated in support of the decision.

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)in Iraq has stated that it will not endorse the decision by the IGC because it would deprive women of their rights. CPA head Paul Bremer must sign off on all such decisions in order for them to take effect."

Document(s): original document

28.01.2004 - Source: Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Abolition of liberal Iraqi civil law ("original document (German)") [ID 9998]

On Januar 12, 2004, the Governing Council passed a decret to abolish the liberal civil law and to delegate the "personal right" (Personenrecht) to religious courts. Muslim women, who enjoyed judicial equality, will depend on men again and be subject to polygamy under Sharia law.

Document(s): original document (German)

27.01.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Focus on new family law ("original document") [ID 9999]

"Iraqi women, including a minister, protested on the streets of Baghdad this week against the Iraqi Governing Council's (IGC) Act 137, dated 29 December, replacing Iraqi civil law concerning the family with Shari'at law (Islamic law).

The new law, still to be implemented, means that marriage, divorce, custody, and child support, inheritance and all other aspects of family law will be dealt with by Shari'at courts. (The law is to be introduced in the new Iraqi family law known as "Personal Status Law".)

IGC's Act 137 amending Iraq's relatively secular family law with "the dictates of the Laws of the Holy Koran", was passed by the US-appointed body on 29 December 2003. "The act was taken by the IGC but it has not turned into a law yet," Hameid Al-Kafa'y, spokesperson for the IGC, told IRIN in Baghdad. He defended the new law as "diverse" and said that it represents the diversity of religions and sects in today's Iraqi society.

The act is still being discussed with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) who retain ultimate control over Iraq. Despite this Kafa'y maintained that the CPA had no power to stop laws decided by the IGC but it could delay them or convince them to change them.

But the act has faced stiff opposition. About 100 Iraqi women led by public works minister, Nesrine al-Barwari, protested in central Baghdad against the act, saying it discriminates against women and undermines the Iraqi family and society.

"It's a return to the past and would prevent women from choosing their husbands, and their rights in child guardianship and inheritance," Zakia Khalifa, head of Women's Progress Organisation, told IRIN in Baghdad. (...) The women's rights activist cited examples where a man, under Saddam's law, could not marry another woman without his wife's approval. Also, women, if divorced, could stay in the house they were living in and the man would have to leave. Women's groups and prominent judges have rushed to condemn the act and to voice fears that the law could be risky in terms of dividing Iraq's many sects and religions. (...)

According to the lawyer, Iraq's 1959 civil code governing family affairs was considered the most progressive in the Middle East, making polygamy difficult and guaranteeing women's custody rights in the case of divorce. (...) "The Iraqi family law (otherwise known as the Personal Status Law) is the achievement of the struggle of the Iraqi people for much of the past century not a law written by Saddam Hussein. It should be consistent with Iraq's international legal obligations such as the Universal Declaration of Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Iraqi ratification 1986), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Iraqi ratification 1994)," a statement from WILPF said. (...)"

Document(s): original document