Iraq Continues to "re-veil" women

As we pointed out earlier at Running Scared, (see "Bringing equality to all in Iraq... all with a penis, anyway") the menfolk in Iraq aren't exactly rushing to embrace Western culture as it applies to equality for women. Apparently they are not only doing so in violent, covert ways behind closed doors, but are also moving to strip most of the gender equality out of their new constitution.

A working draft of Iraq's new constitution would cede a strong role to Islamic law and could sharply curb women's rights, particularly in personal matters like divorce and family inheritance.

The document's writers are also debating whether to drop or phase out a measure enshrined in the interim constitution, co-written last year by the Americans, requiring that women make up at least a quarter of the parliament.

The draft of a chapter of the new constitution obtained by The New York Times on Tuesday guarantees equal rights for women as long as those rights do not "violate Shariah," or Koranic law.

"Yes, yes, yes..of course we are going to be giving equal rights to females. Don't worry, fine American friends. Of course, you understand that we still have to stone them to death if they start running around acting like Hollywood whores, but we're sure you knew that already."

Apparently they're making some progress towards some form of constitution anyway.

The chapter has 27 articles, most of which have relatively liberal provisions aimed at ensuring various civil rights. The first says that "all Iraqis are equal before the law" and that "equal opportunities are guaranteed for all citizens according to the law." The final article forbids censorship of the press.

That's an interesting provision to toss in there, considering that we already shut down their major (non-American controlled) newspaper and their biggest Arabic language television station. But what the heck, eh? If nothing else, they'll have the "Freedom to Watch Fox News Channel" amendment.

Stand by ladies... if this thing really takes off in the "new democratic model" of Iraq, you may be wearing full length body veils here in the United States before long. Oh well... I don't go to the beach much anymore as it is.