Event reports
Event: Regional Roundtable Discussion
Date, Place: February 27-28, 2013, Coral Suits Hotel, Beirut – Lebanon
Concept: Suzan Aref, Dr. Otmar Oehring, Dr. Dima Dabbous
Organization: Women Empowerment Organization, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung –
Amman Office, Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World
1. Program Overview
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Welcome Speeches
CEDAW and the Importance of Committing to the International Agreements
Discrimination Against Women in Iraqi Legislation (Constitution and Personal Status Law)
Discrimination Against Women in Iraqi Legislation (Penal Code and other Laws)
Challenges Facing the Elimination of the Discrimination Against Women Presenting the 2011 Iraqi CEDAW Report
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Women’s Laws in Kurdistan in Comparison with the Rules in the Federal Government
Suggested Strategies for Addressing Women’s Rules
The Lebanese Experience in Dealing with the Personal Status Law The Syrian Experience in Dealing with the Personal Status Law Planning the Research Paper and Designing the Research Groups
Final Remarks
Conclusion
List of Participants
Salim AL-MAKASSEES
Judge
Karrada District Court
Baghdad, Iraq
Sabbah Al HALLAK
Activist and Researcher
Syrian Women League Organization
Damascus, Syria
Suhailah Hassan Al-ASADI
Project Manager
Iraq Foundation - Baghdad Office
Baghdad, Iraq
Ta’ameem Jaleel AL AZZAWIE
Lawyer and expert trainer
Baghdad, Iraq
Liza Nissan HIDO
Director
Baghdad Women's Association
Baghdad, Iraq
Dr. Ihsaan Muhsen ALHUDHAIRI
Lecturer
College of Law
Najaf, Iraq
Judge Rahem AlIGEELI
Judge
Baghdad, Iraq
Dr. Nahla Al NADAWI
College Professor
College of Education for Women
University of Baghdad
Baghdad, Iraq
Judge Hadi Aziz AL SADI
Judge
Baghdad, Iraq
Dr. Bayan Kovistan AZIZI
Assistance lecture of Law and Politics
Salahaddin University
Head of women program in Hawler center for rehabilitation of torture victims
Erbil, Iraq
Dr. Dima DABBOUS
Director
Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW)
Lebanese American University
Beirut, Lebanon
Dr. Iman Hadi AL-BARAZANCHY
Member of Baghdad Provincial Council
Baghdad, Iraq
Dr. Sabah Sobhi HAYDER
Head of Political Science Department
College of Law and Politics- Salahaddin University
Erbil, Iraq
Dr. Qusay Salman HILAL
Head of the Department of Law
Cihan University
Erbil, Iraq
Dr. Bushra AL OBAIDY
Director
Iraqi Women Jurists Organization
Baghdad, Iraq
Suzan AREF
Director
Women Empowerment Organization (WEO)
Erbil, Iraq
Joumana MERHI
Director
The Arab Institute for Human Rights
Beirut, Lebanon
Masroor Aswad MOHIALDEEN
Member of the Iraqi High Commission of Human Rights
Kirkuk, Iraq
Hazha Salman MUSTAFA-MADHAR, MP
Member of the Parliament
Kurdistan Parliament
Erbil, Iraq
Dr. Otmar OEHRING
Director
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung - Amman Office
Amman, Jordan
Tavga Omer RASHID
Director
Legal Department and the Protection of Human Rights at Commission for Human Rights (KRG)
Erbil, Iraq
Peter Rimmele
Director
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung - Beirut Office
Beirut, Lebanon
Objective
Women’s rights in Iraq have had a long lasting history and used to be the most developed ones in the region. At the beginning of the 90s however, these rights continuously decreased and have not recovered until today. While the Kurdish
region has been able to make progress in the field of women’s rights in the last decade, mostly legally, the Arab part of Iraq is still facing severe problems, legally as well as in practice.
In this context, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Amman/KAS Amman, the Women Empowerment Organization/WEO, and the
Lebanese American University Beirut/LAU organized a regional roundtable on the 27th and 28th of February 2013 on the challenges Iraqi women are facing in the process of obtaining legal rights. Women’s rights activists, academics from the field of Gender Studies, as well as high ranking judges participated in the workshop to discuss gender discrimination in the Iraqi law.
The roundtable was moderated by Ta’ameem Jaleel Al Azzawie who is a lawyer and trainer on women’s rights from
Baghdad, Iraq.
The workshop will be followed by a number of meetings aimed at writing a comprehensive research paper that
uncovers the defects in the Iraqi legislation as well as the discrimination of women on the ground - a result of the patriarchic system. Additionally, the study will give recommendations to amend discriminating articles and implement equitable laws.
Welcome Speeches
At the beginning of the workshop the
organizers Suzan Aref, WEO, Mr. Peter
Rimmele, KAS Beirut, Dr. Otmar Oehring,
KAS Amman, and Dr. Dima Dabbous of the
Institute of Women’s Studies in the Arab
World at LAU Beirut welcomed all
participants and thanked them for their
great commitment and a fruitful
cooperation. They emphasized that it is the
combination of participants that makes this
roundtable highly efficient. Activists,
academics, and legal representatives will
network and form qualitatively high focus
groups for the subsequent research.
CEDAW and the Importance of Committing to the International Agreements
At the beginning of the first session
Ta’ameem Jaleel Al Azzawie explained the
background of Iraq and international
agreements with a focus on CEDAW, the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women.1 CEDAW
had been signed and ratified by Iraq in
1986. However, the application and
implementation of the agreement and its
articles on the ground has not been
successful. One reason is that legal bodies,
such as judges, lawyers etc., have not been
committed sufficiently to its articles. The
second reason is that Iraq made
reservations to Art. 2 (f) and (g), Art. 9 (1)
and (2), Art. 16, and Art. 29 of the
convention which significantly undermines
its efficiency as they are made to core
articles of the convention. The reservations
have been placed although Iraq has signed
the Vienna Convention which forbids
1 The text of the convention can be found under
the following link:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/
econvention.htm
reservations on main articles of international
agreements that undermine the essence of
a treaty.
The text of the articles holding reservations
would pledge the state to the following:
- Art. 2 (f): To take all appropriate
measures, including legislation, to modify or
abolish existing laws, regulations, customs
and practices which constitute
discrimination against women.
- Art. 2 (g): To repeal all national penal
provisions which constitute discrimination
against women.
- Art. 9 (1): States Parties shall grant
women equal rights with men to acquire,
change or retain their nationality. They shall
ensure in particular that neither marriage to
an alien nor change of nationality by the
husband during marriage shall automatically
change the nationality of the wife, render
her stateless or force upon her the
nationality of the husband.
- Art. 9 (2): States Parties shall grant
women equal rights with men with respect
to the nationality of their children.
- Art. 16: States Parties shall take all
appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in all matters
relating to marriage and family relations and
in particular shall ensure, on a basis of
equality of men and women (…).
- Art. 29: Any dispute between two or more
States Parties concerning the interpretation
or application of the present Convention
which is not settled by negotiation shall, at
the request of one of them, be submitted to
arbitration (…).
During the subsequent discussion,
participants emphasized with regard to Art.
16 that the main problem of this reservation
is the fact that it denies women the right to
freely choose who they marry. Thereby, it
also allows parents and judges to marry kids
under the age of 16 without any legal
consequences.
Thus, the Iraqi constitution is rated over
CEDAW which makes the international
agreement inefficient. In this context,
participants noted that it needs a better
harmonization between international
conventions, specifically CEDAW, and
national legislations. Therefore, legal
representatives, mainly judges, have to be
involved in the study to be conducted in
order to put more pressure on officials to
implement international treaties in the
national legal systems.
Discrimination Against Women in Iraqi Legislation – Constitution and Personal Status Law
Before interpreting the various
discriminating articles in depth, the
technical difficulties of the constitutional text
were discussed.
Judge Rahem Aligeeli stressed an important
point. He explained that the order of the
constitution is highly important for the
impact of its articles and paragraphs. That
means that a paragraph in the constitution
stands above the preceding one with regard
to the influence of its content. Art. 2 (c), for
instance, is valued higher than Art. 2 (b)
while (b) is rated higher than 2 (a).
Furthermore, the text of the articles is not
clear and leaves too much room for
interpretation. This has a huge influence on
its application which presents a problem
that needs to be tackled as it can lead to
legal abuse; especially, because prosecutors
are often influenced by their own
background and mentality. Here, it needs
better independent observation bodies to
tackle the problem. It was further noted
that the style of writing includes women
politically but not really in the rights
regarding cultural issues.
Additionally, the way the constitution has
been created is a reason for its
shortcomings: Various people and groups
with different social and religious
backgrounds participated in the
establishment of the constitutional text. The
law is an outcome of different official actors,
mainly clerics, that were creating the law
beneficial for their own confession or tribe
and, hence, their self interest. With 17
confessions and a high number of tribes
this, of course, had a significant influence on
the laws.
Workshop participants
Particularly Art. 41 of the constitution has
led to widespread criticism among women’s
rights activists as it allows for a draconic
interpretation of Islam. The text of the
article is as followed:
Art. 41: The followers of all religions and
sects are free in the:
- (a): Practice of religious rites, including
the Husseini ceremonies (Shiite religious
ceremonies)
- (b): Management of the endowments, its
affairs and its religious institutions. The law
shall regulate this.
Second: The state guarantees freedom of
worship and the protection of the places of
worship.
The main dilemma of the article is the fact
that it can be used as an excuse for
practices that are not compatible with basic
human rights laws. As the law says that
every individual is free in practicing its
personal status according to its religious
rites, it allows for instance the marriage of
minors as the age of marriage is different in
every religion. Also inheritance or even
incest is interpreted differently in the
confessions. Moreover, Art. 41 is highly
influential on other laws. An example is the
custody for a child. In principle the woman
should have custody for her child. However,
Art. 41 questions this regulation as some
confessions have their own rulings with
regard to custody. Thus, as there is no clear
regulation and the personal status can be
dealt with on a private base and on the base
of a person’s religion the law risks the
violation of basic human rights. It also
promotes confessionalism by rating it over
citizenship which is a dangerous path – civil
law should always stand above
confessionalism in the name of equality.
Art. 41 can not question and risk the
general principles of the constitution but has
to be in conformity with the constitution.
Participants subsequently discussed whether
an amendment of Art. 41 is the final aim or
a reinterpretation by legal bodies in
conformity with the general principles of the
constitution. The final decision about the
article is made by the Constitutional
Amendment Committee which needs to be
given an incentive.
It was stated that the law has to be
abolished or amended as a reinterpretation
will not be enough to change the situation
on the ground. In order for legal bodies to
change their attitude and, hence, amend the
law it needs encompassing awareness raising
campaigns as well as an involvement
of decision makers. The aim should be the
preparation of a new law. Even if the
suggestion might get rejected it should be
proposed to indirectly pressure officials.
Here, also judges should participate in such
campaigns in order to give it more strength.
However, even tough some decision makers
might share their ideas, convincing them to
promote them openly is difficult as officials
are often scared of the consequences if they
challenge state institutions. If the law is not
abolished it will need a new article that
makes the misuse of 41 impossible and,
hence, clearly defines its interpretation.
Discrimination Against Women in Iraqi
Legislation – Penal Code and other
Laws)
At the beginning of the third session
Ta’ameem Jaleel Al Azzawie listed the main
laws of the Iraqi Penal Code (from 1969)
discriminating women:
2 Art. 41 (1)
considers as a legal right “The punishment
of a wife by her husband, the disciplining by
parents and teachers of children under their
authority within certain limits prescribed by
law or by custom.”3 Art. 128 and 130 give
legal excuses for crimes such as honor
killings. Further laws that violate women’s
rights and do not treat them equally to men
are Art. 318, 377, 380, 393, 398, 409, and
427. Most of the laws, participants noted,
are in relation with women as victims of
violence. Art 427 for instance allows judges
to drop charges against a man that i.e.
kidnaps or rapes a woman if he marr ies her
after that. As a result violence against
women is being legitimized which is a
common phenomenon not only in the Penal
Code but in the whole Iraqi law system.
2 The text of the Penal Code can be found under
the following link:
http://law.case.edu/saddamtrial/documents/Iraqi_
Penal_Code_1969.pdf
3 In Kurdistan this law is not in power for
husbands punishing their wifes but for teachers
punishing their kids.
These laws are inhumane as they repress
the dignity of women.
However, the problem is not only with the
laws but also the mentality of the people
that believe in the justice of these laws.
There are cases where parents might not kill
their daughter anymore in the name of
honor, i.e. due to adultery, but burn her
with hot water and claim to the outside that
it was an accident or that the daughter
wanted to commit suicide. While an
examination could find out whether this is in
accordance with the facts it is almost never
followed up with such cases. Hence, an
overall question is whether society
recognizes women that were raped as
victims or as perpetrators. Additionally,
judges often take their own cultural
background more into consideration than
the law itself which is highly unacceptable
and can not be tolerated anymore.
While most laws mentioned above legitimize
violence against women participants
emphasized that the aim is not to
implement the same rights for women but
to abolish or amend laws allowing violence
and instead to enforce human rights.
Challenges Facing the Elimination of the Discrimination Against Women
Presenting the 2011 Iraqi CEDAW Report
During the session participants summarized
the main points discussed before and named
the main challenges Iraqi women are facing:
- Lack of political will to achieve
equality and to apply encompassing
Human Rights
- The patriarchic mentality of the
society
- Lack of awareness among women
about their rights and possibilities
- Economic dependence and illiteracy
of women
- Discriminating laws and lack of
enforcement of laws ensuring
gender equality
- Gaps in laws which allows
subjective interpretation
- Patriarchic views of judges that
influence their jurisdiction
- Absence of mechanisms that
implement laws on the ground
- The interference and influence of
religious and tribal leaders in the
state
- Lack of women in decision making
positions, including parties
- No judicial offices focusing on cases
related to women’s rights
- Lack of academic data and
information
- Civil Society is not developed
enough which results in a lack of
awareness-raising campaigns
- Underrepresentation of the topics
human rights, equality, and
democracy in school curricula
- Lack of commitment of Iraqi state
to enforce international agreements
- Biased media reports on women
issues
- Corruption in the public sector
- Underrepresentation of women in
security related sections such as
the police
- Failure of the Public Prosecution
Office in following up with cases discriminating women
While there are many discriminating articles
in the Iraqi law there are also various laws
aimed at equality as well as other
mechanism in the society that, in theory,
are supposed to ensure women
empowerment - such as quotas. However,
in practice these mechanisms are still
indirectly serving the patriarchic system.
Many women in high positions such as the
parliament are not specialized in the field of
women’s rights and rather serve the interest
of a specific group than of the state. Also, in
practice quotas in public institutions are
often distributed between groups and hence
serve the interest of men. Female MPs are
often married or related to other politicians
and vote according to their will.
Day 2
Women’s Laws in Kurdistan in
Comparison with the Rules in the Federal Government
Hazha Salman Mustafa-Madhar gave an overview of the legal situation with regard
to women’s rights in Kurdistan.
After the Kurdish Uprisings in the early 90s,
Kurdistan continuously tried to improve and
amend its laws with regard to Human
Rights. Thus, various laws on women’s
rights in the legal system, especially those
targeting violence against women, have
been changed to the better. Articles of the
Penal Code that have been amended are
129, 228, 130 and 115. Additionally, a
Higher Council of Women’s Affairs has been
created in 2010 that follows up with laws
regarding women’s. However, while the
situation in theory seems very promising
and while various laws have been amended
and implemented that protect women and
their rights, in practice the situation in
Kurdistan is still difficult. Hazha Salman
Mustafa-Madhar stated that in 2012 in Erbil
128 cases of torture against women
happened, 7 honor killings, 45 suicides by
burning, 22 homicides of women and 11
honor killings outside of Erbil.
During the subsequent discussion
participants stated that similar to the rest of
Iraq the mentality of the people is an
influential problem in Kurdistan. Many
families are highly committed to their
tradition to an extent that women suffer
from it. The burning of women as a form of
punishment is still common. Also, Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM), is a significant
problem in Kurdistan, more than in the Arab
part of Iraq. The main problem, participants
noted, is that the existing laws are not
enforced in practice. For instance, the law
on polygamy says that a woman has to
agree that her husband marries another
woman. However, in practice women are
often forced to agree on the arrangement so
that it can not be classified as a mutual
agreement. Judges frequently support these
practices.
It was further stated that the Kurdish law is
only applicable in the region or territory of
Kurdistan. Thus, if a violation of the law
happens outside of Kurdistan by Kurds it is
not punishable. As a result, many Kurdish
people get married, for instance to minors,
outside of Kurdistan. Hence, the laws are
often inefficient on the ground. However, it
should be mentioned that the government
of Kurdistan is better following up with the
violations on the ground. A further serious
and related problem in Kurdistan that needs
to be tackled is human trafficking. The
region is mainly used as a transit point to
Syria and Kuwait but also brings a
significant number of women and children
into Kurdistan. Kurdish law is the worst in
the region with regard to human trafficking.
In a summary, the main challenges for
women in Kurdistan are the patriarchic
system, the application of the laws on the
ground, and the gaps within the laws that
leave room for subjective interpretation.
Suggested Strategies for Addressing Women’s Rights
During this session participants further
discussed the points addressed before,
tackled differences and similarities between
Kurdistan and Iraq, and summarized the
specific challenges they should approach in
the near future.
In the context of CEDAW and international
agreements it was stated that more
pressure has to be channeled towards state
institutes to reach a lift of the reservations.
The reservations affect many issues related
to the personal status such as marriage,
divorce, inheritance etc. and are hence, of
utmost importance but also sensitive topics.
In order to promote the official lifting of the
reservations there needs to be a new and
better study about the effects of the
reservations in practice. It was emphasized
that there should be no differences in the
law for the various confessions but only one
law for all Iraqis. Also, the existing laws in
the constitution which do guarantee equality
have to be applied encompassing.
In order to secure the situation for women
on the ground the security sector has to be
involved. For instance, police officers have
to be better controlled and trained about the
rights of women. Furthermore, the skills and
knowledge in the field women’s rights of
officers in the customs and citizenship
department as well as the Ministry of
Interior has to be improved as these
sections have a crucial impact on the
application of the laws.
A pre-condition to work on the issues
addressed in a successful way, are solid
information sources. Therefore, statistics
from various institutions are needed, such
as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of
Interior etc. but also from universities und
independent institutes. To collect
encompassing data and analyze them in a
sophisticated way deep relations between
academia and activists are essential.
All in all, encompassing awareness-raising is
needed. This includes the education of
women about their laws; to tackle the
judiciary; to publicly discuss the role of
governmental bodies; and to urge lawyers
to look deeper into women’s rights.
The Lebanese Experience in Dealing with the Personal Status Law
Joumana Merhi gave a presentation on the Lebanese experience with the Personal Status Law.
The main dilemma she stated, with regard
to women’s rights in Lebanon, is the gap
between basic rights of women and
citizenship. The problem is that the laws
regulating the personal status are
contradictive to the national constitution.
Lebanon officially does not have a state
religion as for instance Iraq. However, in
practice legal issues are highly influenced by
religion, respectively the 18 different
confessions existing in Lebanon. Here, the
state steps back and does allow the
confessions to organize themselves with
regard to personal affairs. This creates
problems as all private affairs are decided
on the base of religion which significantly
undermines the civil state. Hence, the
various confessions are standing between
the citizen itself and the state which is
dangerous to the extent that the state does
not interfere in religious judiciary and thus,
is not able to sufficiently protect people
from judiciary that might violate their
human rights. As a result, since the state
has, to some extent given away part of its
sovereignty, people’s feeling of unity
significantly decreased. Instead, the private,
religious, and tribal identity is stronger than
the national identity which leads to an even
deeper gap between the groups. Hence, the
absence of a personal status law for all
Lebanese raises severe problems for the
state. Moreover, since it seems like there
are more rights in practice for confessions
than for individuals, people try to use
religion for their personal interest and
convert for sometimes simple material
reasons such as inheritance.
International agreements can be applied to
the Lebanese constitution, but on the
ground they are more or less meaningless
as the constitution itself does not have the
value it should have. Indeed, because
people do not see themselves protected by
the national law they draw back on religious
jurisprudence. Political parties as well as the
civil society are attached to the various
confessions instead of having national
agendas.
Participants emphasized that, similar to
Iraq, people are not educated enough about
existing laws as for them national laws do
not make a big difference since their legal
issues are dealt with on a confessional base.
Therefore, people distance themselves more
and more from the state and politics. In this
context, participants agreed that there has
to be one unified law for whole Lebanon
which is not optional but based on equality –
between men and women as well as
confessions.
The Syrian Experience in Dealing with the Personal Status Law
Sabbah Al Hallak elaborated on the situation
in Syria with regard to the Personal Status
Law.
She stated that while there is discrimination
in all laws, the basic problem can be found
in the Personal Status Law which is based
on traditional values and lacks modernity.
Islam is seen as one of the main sources of
the law but not the main source so that the
state can easily claim to the outside to be
secular while being highly sectarian in
practice. Many of the articles that existed in
the past and guaranteed some sort of
equality between men and women, have
been abolished or replaced by discriminating
laws. Especially with regard to marriage,
divorce, and crimes such as rape Syrian law
is violating universal Human Rights. Similar
to Iraq the marriage of minors is often
backed by judges which shows that also in
Syria the mentality and the patriarchic
system is one of the main problems. An
interesting aspect is the extent to which the
law differs drastically among the religions.
While Druses do not have polygamy and
while only judges are allowed to authorize a
divorce; among Muslims divorce is the
absolute right of the man but not of the
woman. For Christians adultery is a cause
and justification for divorce no matter who
committed it. Jewish laws are similar to the
Muslim laws and sometimes even more
discriminating. Thus, due to the high level of
confessionalism on the ground, that gives
different rights to the people, Sabbah Al
Hallak recommended that there should be a
Syrian Civil Law for all. Such law could still
involve religious backgrounds but it should
be clear in points such as under age
marriage, rape etc.
During the subsequent discussion it was
noted that campaigns that have been
launched have not had a desirable effect.
Instead, although the official support has
been huge, there was no political success.
Here, it should be questioned whether the
civil society has been strong enough.
Draft for the Research Paper Planning
At the end of the two days workshop a
strategy was developed on how to proceed
with the project, respectively how to
develop the research study. The title of the
research to be conducted will for now stay
the same - “A research on challenges facing
Iraqi women in obtaining legal rights”. The
study itself is supposed to reflect the gap
between international agreements on
women’s rights and the national Iraqi laws
and the closely linked patriarchic system.
The aim is mainly to improve the lobbying
power of the civil society. Thus, the study is
supposed to give the civil society evidence
for the legal situation but also the situation
of Iraqi women on the ground and should
indirectly pressurize decision makers to act
upon the situation as they will not be able
anymore to deny facts. Since the study will
be written by academics, activists, and
judges it will be more convincing as it can
not be claimed to be subjective or onesided.
With regard to the groups participants
decided that there will be three groups in
total - two in the region of Baghdad and one
in Kurdistan. Each group works on the
challenges, gaps, and mechanisms as
described before.
Final Remarks
During the evaluation of the workshop the
diversity of the participants was praised with
regard to their experience, the gender
balance in the workshop, and the diversity
of the religious and ethnic backgrounds of
the participants. It was further appreciated
that the discussions were open and the
different opinions were respected. This was
also a result of the fact that all participants,
regardless of sometimes diverse points of
view, have the same values with regard to
women’s rights.
On the other side, however, it was noted
that maybe it would be better to invite i.e.
judges that are not as supportive of
women’s rights in order to listen to their
points of views and, hence, work on
strategies on how to refute their arguments.
Also, officials from the Iraqi Parliament
should be invited as at one point decision
makers have to be brought to the table so
that amendments of the law are getting
promoted in practice.
Conclusion
The workshop can be assessed as a great
success. Especially the variety of the group
with regard to their profession but their
shared vision at the same time has made
the discussions highly fruitful. It became
clear that neither a pure bottom-up
approach nor a top-down approach will be
sufficient but that the strategy to improve
women’s legal rights has to be
encompassing.