Anwar 1 Nardin Anwar Trina Larson English 124 02-09-2019 Where I’m From According to Osler & Yahya (2013), since the beginning of the 7th century, women and children rights have been under threat in Iraq. In this regards, the threat in women and children rights has been influenced by the following factors; modern secularism, cultural traditions, debates concerning Iraq’s constitution and the Islamic law and sectarian religious conflict. The minority rights organizations in Iraq have been struggling to promote the improvements of the minority status in the law against intimidation and harassment but in vain. Women and children in Iraq have been facing abusive traditional practices such as forced marriages female infanticide, domestic violence, honor killing, and genital mutilation. In 2017, Iraq’s women rights were fundamentally changed by the amendments made to its constitution through Iraq’s parliament. The amendments included the sectarian religious laws that apply to Iraq’s personal status code. In this regard, the legal framework addressing family law that entails majority of women’s legal rights regarding inheritance, child custody, divorce, and marriage, were greatly manipulated (Al-Ali & Pratt, 341). In addition, the amendments permitted child marriages of girls even at a minimum age of nine years. Besides, the amendments affected the civil law offered protection for women and children rights from various forms of abuse such as marriage abuse. Finally, the cross-sectarian reading of the law that makes Anwar 2 decisions on cross-sectarian marriages was weakened by the amendments thus leaving the women and girl children with rights. Activists from various podiums such as Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, Iraqi Women Journalist’s Forum and Iraqi Women Networks have been fighting so hard for personal status code to be reformed, but they have been facing strong oppositions from the Shiite Islamist conservative parties and other armed religious and sectarian groups that have been ruling Iraqi for years now (Sider, Rachel & Corrie Sissons, 431). In such an environment marked by the dominance of religious and sectarian conservative forces, women and children are left with no rights. For many years now, women and children social status and rights have been having been violated and thrown aside. Iraqi has been dominated by male chauvinism issues for a long period of time, an issue that can no longer be overlooked. Although many of the Non-governmental organizations in Iraqi have been committed to protecting women and children rights, they have been facing serious challenges from the Islamic fundamentalists, an aspect that has left both women and children in a helpless situation (Haider, 2018). According to Salvage (2007), is that in the patriarchal system in Kurdish regions in Iraqi have been so strong, a manifestation of womanhood or political demands for gender equality have been discouraged. As a result, women and children have been experiencing various forms of emotional and physical violence. Notably, the issue of women and children rights in Iraqi have been worsened by the U.S military personnel, who have committed crimes of physical assault and sexual harassment against women and children. Anwar 3 With reference to the above problems faced by both women and children In Iraqi, I propose the following techniques to be adopted by individuals and the community at large so as to address this issue. First, it is the mandate of every woman in Iraq to support each other for their inherent dignity to be recognized in the country. In addition, Iraq as a country should reflect on its authoritarian legacy while championing for a free democratic society. In this case, society is also required to exercise respect for the rule of law and fundamental human rights (Davis, 27). Finally, being that the Iraq new constitution exemplifies an introductory element of this multifarious social and political matter, this serves as an opportunity for the country to create a new blueprint for future peace and stability, unite its multiple ethnicities, and build on its unique heritage. Anwar 4 Work Cited Al-Ali, Nadje, and Nicola Pratt. "Between nationalism and women's rights: the Kurdish women's movement in Iraq." Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 4.3 (2011): 339355. Davis, Lisa. "Iraqi Women Confronting ISIL: Protecting Women's Rights in the Context of Conflict." Sw. J. Int'l L. 22 (2016): 27. Haider, Andleeb. "Women Rights Continue to be Violated." (2018). Osler, Audrey, and Chalank Yahya. "Challenges and complexity in human rights education: Teachers’ understandings of democratic participation and gender equity in postconflict Kurdistan-Iraq." Education Inquiry 4.1 (2013): 189-210. Salvage, Jane. "‘Collateral damage’: The impact of war on the health of women and children in Iraq." Midwifery 23.1 (2007): 8-12. Sider, Rachel, and Corrie Sissons. "Researching livelihoods recovery and support for vulnerable conflict-affected women in Iraq." Gender & Development 24.3 (2016): 427-441. Surname 1 Nardin Anwar Trina Larson English 124 Date Where I’m from The two sources that I have chosen are: Women’s Rights under Threat in Iraq by Erin Evers and Constitutional and Legal Rights of Iraqi Women by Mishkat Al Moumin. The main claim for the first source is that, the rights of women and girls in Iraq are under threat because of sectarian division. With the second source, the claim is that, according to Iraq constitution there is providing equality due opinion, color, ethnicity, gender, belief, religion, economic and social status is not enough. According to the first source, the law introduced by the Iraq’s justice minister affected both women and children rights severely since it legalized the child marriage and affected the women in matters to do with child custody and divorce. Moreover, being that the law was based on the Jaafari School of religious jurisprudence, it permitted marital-rape whereby the Muslim men would be entitled to have sex with their wives regardless of their consent. On this note, women and their children were not permitted to leave the house without the permission of their husband. In divorce cases, the law would grant custody to any child below nine years for girls and fifteen years for boys. Finally, the article concludes by stating that the strict interpretation of religious tradition has come at the expense of the women and children, an aspect the Iraq politicians should address. Surname 2 According to the second article, though the constitution provides that Iraqis are equal before the law without segregation due to sect, religion, color, origin, nationality, ethnicity and gender, women and children are not granted these rights. In addition, the constitution allows the women to vote and run offices but according to the traditional religion, they should not. Furthermore, the article also states that the constitution allows children to acquire their nationality through their mothers, but unless the parliament issues a law entitling women to do, the law should not be full filled. Being that the Iraqi constitution does not recognize any human rights conventions, the article asserts that the government should try to enforce sharia law that denies both women and children many rights. Finally, according to the article, religions should be allowed to draft their family laws whereby in most cases women and children rights are not factored in. The key problem I am focusing on in this assignment is that women and children in Iraq have no rights. The major reason that made me prefer the sources referenced in this discussion is that the issue the issue of negligence of women’s and children rights across the globe is prevalent, especially in the contemporary society. The articles are pivotal in addressing the problem identified above. For example, Iraqi’s justice minister drafting laws legalizing children marriage is unbelievable (Evers, par. 2). Additionally, according to Moumin, vague laws contribute to women and children negligence, for example the laws documented in the Iraq’s constitution. The information provided in the article proves to be coherent and articulates with my personal position regarding the issue of women and children negligence and abuse. I deem the articles sound, since they are available in multiple languages hence targeting a large population globally, which increase their credibility. For example, Evers’ article is available in more than ten common languages spoken across the globe. Additionally, the information provided in the second article by Moumin depicts constitutional segments by quoting them, which is of great Surname 3 significance in determining the credibility of the article. He quotes, “…We the people of Iraq … are determined … to … pay attention to women and their rights (Moumin, par. 1).” However, despite the fact that the articles exhaustively discuss the plight of women and children in Iraq, there are critical question they need to address to avoid leaving any stone unturned. For example, what are the efforts that have been put to solve the problem? How do the problems they address correlate with similar problems from various parts of the world? Finally, what is Iraq’s government position with respect to the problems they address? However, the articles are essential in addressing the problem from where I am from. Surname 4 Works Cited Evers, Erin. Women’s Right Under Threat in Iraq. Human Rights Watch, 2014, https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/26/womens-rights-under-threat-iraq. Moumin, Al Mishkat. Rights of Iraqi Women. Middle East Institute. 2007, https://www.mei.edu/publications/constitutional-and-legal-rights-iraqi-women,
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