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poking intellectual holes in the lid of your simplicity

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Iraq's New Constitution: Here's What They Have So Far

1. TBA

2. TBA

3. TBA

4. Women are property.

5. TBA

6. TBA

7. TBA (but something along the lines of, "We shall have a free and democratic society, open to all...with the following exceptions: Christians, gays, moderate Muslims, non-bearded males, left-handed bearded males and, no surprise here, those wacky Zionists.")

8. TBA

9. Bingo Night, featuring door prizes and a $3.99 buffet, shall occur on the first Thursday of every month.

10. TBA

[Update: Here is a good article about the struggle that is currently going on in Iraq over womens rights.]

posted by Samwick @ 11:47 PM  

14 Comments:

  • At 12:03 AM, Blogger Sheryl said…

    Weren't a number of women elected to their parliament in the election?

     

  • At 12:17 AM, Blogger Samwick said…

    Yes. The problem is that Iraqis could only vote on parties, not individuals...and guess who put the various parties together? We did! We organized the groups, hand-selected who could be in office and who couldn't...and there's nothing wrong this this. It was a transitional stage in the election process, so it was probably necessary to put a lot of things together. But, Iraq is 60 percent Shiite. They are extremely conservative and favor strict adherence to the Koran. According to the Koran, women are not fully human, they are the property of the husband. Most Iraqis will not want women in office. I've mentioned this before, but in Saudi Arabia, women aren't even allowed to drive cars. It's illegal. The only way women will receive equal rights in Iraq is if the United States insists on it. It won't come from within. This is also one of the big reasons the consitution is being delayed. They are fighting over what extent their laws will be based upon the Koran. The more democratic Iraq is the worse it will be for women there. It's another reason I opposed the war...Bush kept using simplistic language, about how wonderful democracy is. But, by popular demand, gays are regularly beheaded in Egypt, Pakistan, Suadi Arabia. Women are treated like slaves. Democracy in a repressive society can be an ugly thing. Not that I oppose it, I just felt like Bush never understood the consequences of his own actions.

     

  • At 1:19 AM, Blogger Sheryl said…

    Did you see how earlier this year women in Kuwait stormed their Parliament demanding the right to vote? I posted some pictures in my blog. That was pretty cool, so it's not like sexism is inevitable in democracy. Of course, the women in Kuwait still aren't allowed to vote, but they certainly were having their say there.

    I was watching a UN discussion about islamaphobia last year, and one of the points made there was that nations like Saudi Arabia actually went against islamic law. That part of islamic law is the bayah, which is like an election in which a leader or khalifah must gain his legitimacy through a consent of the governed.

    The impression I got from this talk was that the nations that were the most backward were those that had been influenced by the West and abandoned principles in the Koran. Kind of like the way Bible thumpers here in the US have abandoned the Bible.

    So I would be interested in knowing whether this conservative interpretation of the Sharia (islamic law) is any closer to the genuine religious texts as Bush's interpretation of the Bible. You know?

     

  • At 1:21 AM, Blogger Sheryl said…

    I don't suppose you have read the Koran, have you? I haven't even read past the first half of Matthews in the BIble. I ought to do that some day, especially after that keen review you gave of it. :-)

     

  • At 1:30 AM, Blogger Samwick said…

    The problem is that it's all a matter of interpration. You could legitimately argue that following the Koran means respecting equality. You could also legitimately argue that following the Koran means accepting that women are inferior. Much of the language of the Koran is poetic in nature and, ultimately, it all gets down to the history and practices in the Middle East and not the text. So, the history in the region is that women are treated as objects. As to whether or not this means the Koran is being followed, I'm just not well-read enough to say. Anyone who knows anything about Islam can read this and know that I'm a moron. But, either way, women are treated like property in much of the Middle East and the Koran is used as the justification for this.

    "I don't suppose you've read the Koran have you?"

    Actually I've spent so much time reading the Bible, that I thought it was about time to go out and buy the Koran. So, I recently purchased it, but have only read a tiny bit so far. What I need is, to read it, but also to understand how Muslims interpret it and act on it. I would like to understand the religion a bit more before I...you know, make fun of it.

     

  • At 1:31 AM, Blogger Samwick said…

    The Koran, by the way, seems really repetetive so far. Every single line is: "Allah is great! Allah fucking rocks!!", over and over. I haven't seen much else yet.

     

  • At 2:26 AM, Blogger Sheryl said…

    Hey Matt,

    I saw some site for promoting women in Iraq a while back. I should find that so that I can pretend to be informed in this discussion. :-)

    I will have to read that article tomorrow morning (or maybe afternoon, considering the time.) Thanks for adding it. :-)

    That's pretty darned impressive that you are reading the koran! I've thought about doing that, but I am such a lazy b***. I hope you will share your impressions once you get through it. I love your humor, but a serious assessment would be interesting as well (if you'd be willing.)

    I think the interpretation of islam is called ijtihad, so you might browse the internet for that term if you wanna understand the various interpretations. Also, beyond the Koran, there is also the Sunnah to read.

    But reading the koran. That's ambitious. :-))) Of course, reading the Bible was ambitious as well. You must have a longer attention span than me. That's wonderful.

     

  • At 2:59 AM, Blogger Samwick said…

    "a serious assessment would be interesting as well"

    I am allergic to serious assessments, but I will definitely try.

    And there are many people in Iraq fighting for womens rights, so there's reason to be hopeful. There are just many other people fighting against basic equality, so it's all a coin toss at this point. And if I had to make a prediction, I would guess that the consitution there will ultimately pay lip service to women's rights. The US will make sure that something along these lines will be included. I'm just worried about the reality on the ground, it seems like women are facing more and more repression there.


    "reading the Bible was ambitious as well. You must have a longer attention span than me"

    You've probably got the better attention span, mine's the size of a flea. I just grew up Christian, attended seminary, was basically exposed to it over a long period of time.

     

  • At 12:33 PM, Blogger Girl With An Alibi said…

    "I would like to understand the religion a bit more before I...you know, make fun of it."

    This is exactly why I love you. You perservere in knowledge for the loftiest of goals... humor. If more folks were like you we wouldn't be at war right now and I'd be paying $1.09 a gallon for gas instead of $1.89

    MATT FOR PRESIDENT... OF THE WORLD!!!!!

     

  • At 9:17 PM, Blogger Sheryl said…

    OK, here's a petition to Dr Ibrahim al-Ja'afari on the issue:

    http://web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/irq-090805-action-eng

    What little I am seeing on the internet does sound rather scary, although it sounds like the Constitution is going to be left up to voters in a referendum on October 15th (if I read correctly.)

     

  • At 9:49 PM, Blogger Sheryl said…

    This is informative too:

    http://www.iraqcp.org/members3/0050807iwn.htm

    This is rather important. I'm glad you brought it to my attention. I've been asleep at the switch because I have been a bit burned out, but this is important.

     

  • At 1:29 AM, Blogger Samwick said…

    Thanks for the links Sheryl.

    "What little I am seeing on the internet does sound rather scary, although it sounds like the Constitution is going to be left up to voters"

    You're right. Things do sound scary and it's because things can go either way at this point. I don't think Bush has much of an interest in pushing for womens rights, his goal has been to establish a pro-US government, but there are forces within and outside of Iraq pushing hard for equal rights. So, these sort of transitional phases are always a little scary, it's hard to know what will happen.

     

  • At 2:28 AM, Blogger Sheryl said…

    This is upbeat. If you can view .mov files, the second to last story on this feed was about a strike women had on the 10th on the issue (I love Maozaic):

    Towards End of Feed

    Anyway....I wish My bloody Windows Player worked right. I found this link called memritv.org that looks like it might be a similar thing to Mozaic, but I can't get it to work on my computer. :-(

     

  • At 2:37 AM, Blogger Sheryl said…

    Wait, check this out!!! You can leave feedback on the Iraqi Constitution!!!!

    http://www.iraqiconstitution.org/feedback.asp

    I should go to bed. I get obsessed with researching things online sometimes. :-(

     

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