- (Agencies-AP) -- The top US administrator in Iraq has
suggested that he would block any interim constitution that would make
Islam the chief source of law.
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- Paul Bremer on Monday said the current draft of the constitution
would make Islam the state religion of Iraq and "a source of inspiration
for the law" - as opposed to the main source.
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- Many Iraqi women have expressed fears that the rights
they hold under Iraq's longtime secular system would be rolled back in
the interim constitution being written by US-picked Iraqi leaders and their
advisers, many of them Americans.
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- US lawmakers have urged the White House to prevent Islamic
restrictions on Iraqi women.
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- Asked what would happen if Iraqi leaders wrote into the
constitution that Sharia (Islamic law) is the principal basis of the law,
Bremer suggested he would wield his veto. "Our position is clear.
It can't be law until I sign it."
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- Permanent constitution
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- Bremer must sign into law all measures passed by the
25-member council, including the interim constitution. Iraq's powerful
Shia clergy, however, has demanded the document be approved by an elected
legislature.
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- Under US plans, a permanent constitution would not be
drawn up and voted on until 2005.
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- Bremer used the inauguration ceremony at a women's centre
in the southern city of Karbala to argue for more than "token"
women's representation in the transitional government due to take power
on 30 June.
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- "I think it is very important that women be represented
in all the political bodies," Bremer said.
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- "Women are the majority in this country, in this
area probably a substantial majority," he said, referring to the Saddam
Hussein's alleged 1991 purges of Shia Muslim men. Those killings left the
holy city of Karbala and other Shia cities dotted with mass graves and
brimming with thousands of widows.
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- Liberal reforms
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- Enshrining women's rights in a future constitution could
be difficult.
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- US observers have predicted liberal reforms introduced
in the transitional law could well be rolled back in a future constitution.
Bremer acknowledged that US influence on an Iraqi constitution would fade
after the 30 June handover.
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- "There will be a sovereign government here in June.
The Iraqis then will then have responsibility for their own country,"
Bremer said.
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- There are three women on the Governing Council.
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- 'Principal basis'
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- Muhsin Abd al-Hamid, the current council president and
a member of a committee drafting the interim constitution, has proposed
making Sharia the "principal basis" of legislation.
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- The phrasing could have broad effects on secular Iraq.
In particular, it would likely moot much of Iraq's 1959 Law of Personal
Status, which grants uniform rights to husband and wife to divorce and
inheritance, and governs related issues like child support.
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- In December, the council passed a decision abolishing
the 1959 law and allowing each of the main religious groups to apply its
own tradition - including Islamic law. Bremer has not signed it into law.
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- © 2003 Aljazeera.Net
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- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3F15B75C-B63C-4B3E-B8A4-82C6EE6370D1.htm
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