Thursday, October 21, 2010

Q&A: What the U.S. Undid for Women in Iraq (OneWorld.net)

OneWorld.net - LONDON, Oct 20 (IPS) - The U.S.-led invasion and then occupation of Iraq brought a sharp setback to the rights of women in that country, UNFPA head Thoraya Obaid tells IPS in an interview.

Q: There is a widespread perception that the position of women in Islamic societies is low. But in Iraq women had many rights, that vanished after the Americans came along.

A: I worked in Iraq for eight years until the invasion of Kuwait. We were there as a part of the Economic Commission for Western Asia, and we worked with women's groups there at that time, and certainly, by the time we left the Federation of Iraqi Women had put together the best family laws you can get from all the different sects, and also labour laws. But then the invasion came and the whole thing went apart.

When the U.S. came in, they went back to the family laws of 1958. That tells you how far they have gone back. What they did was to cancel everything that was previous. And that is not really a good judgment for women. It was quite a bit of difference.
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7 comments:

  1. The view that Muslim societies are necessarily backward on the position of women arises from stereotyping, she says. And she speaks of herself as a Muslim woman who does not fit the stereotype.

    Arises from stereotyping? That, of course, would be convenient to think so, but is simply not true. The view is based on facts and statistics. She and many others are fine exceptions, but they are a minority in Islamic countries and there are many reports to back that up. Here is one:

    http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/report2010.pdf

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  2. <span>The view that Muslim societies are necessarily backward on the position of women arises from stereotyping, she says. And she speaks of herself as a Muslim woman who does not fit the stereotype.  
     
    Arises from stereotyping? That, of course, would be convenient to think so, but is simply not true.  She and many others are fine exceptions, but they are a minority in Islamic countries and there are many reports to back that up. Here is one:  
     
    http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/report2010.pdf</span>

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  3. <span><span>The view that Muslim societies are necessarily backward on the position of women arises from stereotyping, she says. And she speaks of herself as a Muslim woman who does not fit the stereotype.    
       
    Arises from stereotyping? That would be convenient to think so, but is simply not true. Of course, there should be no monolith view, some countries do better than others, and cultural interpretations of Islam must be taken into account, but in general the facts are prettty grim.  Looking at the countries that take up the lowest ranks on this report, the majority are Islamic.
       
    http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/report2010.pdf</span></span>

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  4. Conclusion: The Iraqis were better off with Saddam Hussein.  The invasion must be added to the long list of our sins.


    <span><span><span>The view that Muslim societies are necessarily backward on the position of women arises from stereotyping, she says. And she speaks of herself as a Muslim woman who does not fit the stereotype.</span></span></span>
    <span><span><span>      
      Looking at the countries that take up the lowest ranks on this report, the majority are Islamic.  While she and many others do not fit the stereotype, they are most definitely in the minority... in the Middle Eastern countries in particular.
         
    http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/report2010.pdf</span></span></span>

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  5. <span>"Conclusion: The Iraqis were better off with Saddam Hussein."</span>

    Summary execution, vza.. ..Don't you agree that a return to 1958 family laws is a huge setback for women.. Was everything that Saddam did bad bad bad?

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  6. Saddam for all his ills, and they were MANY, was secular and had no time for frigging clerics of any shape or form..Let's at least admit that..

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  7. Sorry, but I wasn't trying to be sarcastic.  I'm serious. Based on what I am reading now and the large scale theft and corruption that continues to permeate Iraqi society and prevent so much progress, I must conclude they were better off with Saddam.  There are the brave and decent people who tried to make something of the opportunity the invasion and toppling of Saddam gave them, but they are outnumbered by the venal,  the selfish,  the thugs and  the religious fanatics.

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