Iraq Women's Rights

Throughout the Middle East, there are a large number of countries that range from the wealthiest and educated, to the poorest and illiterate. For many people outside of the Middle East, the common assumption lies in the belief that prosperity and wealth are very progressive and liberal. However, this assumption is unfortunately not the case, because in countries such as Saudi Arabia; a very wealthy and educated state, tends to have very similar conservative and strict approach to woman’s rights just like Iraq, one of the poorest states in the Middle East. Both of Iraq and Saudi Arabia are similar when it comes to woman’s rights because woman in these countries are greatly oppressed and often victims of discrimination because on the fact that …show more content…
In 1959, Iraq took the first step towards gender equality under the rule of General Abdel-Karim Qassin. He helped pass the new personal status law that granted what were considered at the time “progressive rights” regarding marriage, polygamy, inheritance, and child custody (Ahmed 157). Unfortunately, the personal status law only lasted four years because General Qassin was overthrown and murdered by Abdel-Salam Arif, Abdel-Karim’s erstwhile comrade (Ahmed 157). Arif repealed the personal status law in 1963 and implemented rules solely based on Sharia (Islamic Law). The introduction of Sharia in Iraqi society had its immediate effect on woman by causing them to lose many rights that were protected by the personal status law because of the strict interpretation of the Quran. Surprisingly, the year 1968 marked the end of Sharia’s use under Abdel-Rahman Arif when he fell out of favor with the Ba’ath party, (Iraq’s leading political party at the time). Arif eventually turned against the Ba’ath party and began a feud that unfortunately cost Arif his life because he was killed in a helicopter crash (Ahmed 157). After the result of his death, Arif was succeeded by the Ba’ath Party who in 1970 implemented a constitution that increased the effort to bar …show more content…
The Iran-Iraq war impacted both the woman and children of Iraq as the war left “many of them widows and orphans (Ahmed 158). Huda Ahmed claims that approximately 160,000 to 240,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed during the war, with figures of the actual number of deaths in Iraq actually being higher due to the nefarious acts committed by the Ba’athist regime in executing victims who were believed to have different political ideologies than those of the Ba’ath Party (Ahmed 158). Furthermore, the large debt took its toll on the Iraqi government to the point where they started curtail the programs that many faithful Iraqi citizens benefitted from. Dismayingly, the Iraqi population began to suffer great losses at a mercurial pace. Iraqi woman were witnessing their important social programs curtailed which allowed once allowed their children to go to college for free. In addition, many Iraqi habitants became weary of constantly being vulnerable to violent attacks because of Iran-Iraq war. Eventually, the rational changing policies proved to be too much of a burden for the Iraqis which as a result influenced the regime to take measures that established a more “conservative society” (Ahmed 158). The conservative society created a new set of morals and ethics among Iraq, which included “cracking down on liberal style of dress” (Ahmed 158). This practice became the downfall for woman’s rights in Iraq because they