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Iraqi Women Face Further Loss of Liberty; Greens Call for Secular Democracy in Iraq. |
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THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES Contacts: As Iraqis face both colonial rule under U.S. occupation and repressive religious codes, Green Party members seek assurances of full human rights and freedoms, sexual equality, and secular law in Iraq. Greens around the country urge the Senate to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which has already been signed by Iraq but not the U.S. The Green Party of the United States supports the full involvement of women in any interim Iraqi government and reconstruction of civil institutions. However, women need assurances of full civil liberties and equality in the future, and such assurances can only be fulfilled in a society ruled by secular law, with clear separation of church and state. "Only a secular democracy in Iraq can assure protection of minority groups, not just women but religious and ethnic groups and homosexuals as well as political dissidents," said Vivian Houghton, former President of the Delaware chapter of NOW and 2002 Green Party candidate for Attorney General of Delaware. "The resurgence of fundamentalist Shiite elements who have taken control of numerous functions and areas of Baghdad is troubling," Houghton added. The NY Times and San Francisco Chronicle have reported that groups of Shiite clerics have moved quickly to constrain the freedom of women, by taking control of educational, cultural and political institutions in many parts of the country. In some rural areas, Shiites have forced all women to wear a head-to-toe black garment in public. The Basra University and theaters are now under Shiite control, and female university students have been harassed for not wearing head scarves. If such elements prevail, the status of Iraqi women, among the most educated in the Middle East, may retrogress to that of Afghan women, many of whom have withdrawn from public view due to continuing harassment by fundamentalists. Afghan women in most rural areas rarely leave their homes or see doctors, and suffer among the world's highest rates of both infant mortality and maternal death. Women and girls who dare to leave their homes are harassed and threatened, and schools for girls have been bombed or set onfire in various provinces. The Green Party has endorsed the Global Greens Charter, which supports the separation of religion and state and a "just secular legal system that ensures the right of defence and practices proportionality between crime and punishment." The party's national platform states the following challenge for the U.S.: "Women's rights must be protected and expanded to guarantee each woman's right to be a full participant in society, free from sexual harassment, job discrimination or interference in the intensely personal choice about whether to have a child." "Many secular democracies, especially the U.S.,
have a long way to go in preventing murder, rape and domestic violence,
but it is only in secular democracies where women can be assured of any
institutionalized protection," said Karen Lienau, Chair of the
Green Party of Delaware and community activitist. "The dire
condition of women in Afghanistan cannot be allowed to spread to Iraq
through the efforts of fundamentalist Shiites, whose version of shariah
law allows oppression, harassment and physical punishment of women. It
is urgent that the U.S., its allies and the U.N. make the freedom and
equality of women in Iraq a top priority." |