[Mb-civic] Iraqi Activist: "we have lost all the gains we made over the past 30 years"

[Jef Bek]

"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights
and the position of women. But look what has happened: we have lost all the
gains we made over the past 30 years. It's a big disappointment."
- Safia Taleb al-Souhail (Iraqi Human Rights Activist)

29 August 2005 23:49

THE INDEPENDENT
    
Iraqi activist taken up by Bush recants her views
 
By Andrew Buncombe 
Published: 28 August 2005

She was the Iraqi activist who became a symbol of the possibility of a
brighter future for Iraq.

Back in February, with blue ink on her finger symbolising the recent Iraqi
election in which she had just voted, Safia Taleb al-Souhail was invited to
sit with the first lady, Laura Bush, and listen to the President claim in
his state of the union address that success was being achieved in Iraq. Her
picture went round the world after she turned to hug Janet Norwood, a Texas
woman whose son had been killed in Iraq.

But now it appears Ms Souhail, an anti-Saddam activist who became Iraq's
ambassador to Egypt, may be having second thoughts about the "success" she
celebrated with a two-fingered victory sign.
Having seen the negotiations for the country's constitution fall into
disarray and the prospect of a secular constitution severely undermined, she
expressed her concerns last week.

"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights
and the position of women. But look what has happened: we have lost all the
gains we made over the past 30 years. It's a big disappointment. Human
rights should not be linked to Islamic sharia law at all. They should be
listed separately in the constitution."

Although, in practice, many Iraqis end up having recourse to religious
authorities or informal tribal law, the idea of a united civil code is
central to the modern state, she said.

Ms Souhail, whose actions during Mr Bush's February address were noted by
Billmon.Org, a political website, added: "This will lead to creating
religious courts. But we should be giving priority to the law."
Mr Bush claimed last week that women's rights were not being threatened by
the negotiations in Baghdad.

"There is not, as I understand it, the way the constitution is written, is
that women have got rights, inherent rights recognised in the constitution,
and that the constitution talks about, you know, not 'the religion' but 'a
religion'," he said.