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PERSPECTIVES:
Iraq Constitution
August 19, 2005 Episode no. 851
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LUCKY SEVERSON, guest anchor: In Iraq, lawmakers resumed the struggle this week to craft a new constitution. That after the first attempt failed, with huge differences yet to be reconciled. The new goal is this coming Monday (August 22), and if that deadline is met, Iraqis will pass judgment in a nationwide referendum October 15th. A two-thirds majority is needed to approve the constitution.
According to participants, there are still some serious differences over federalism, the distribution of Iraq's oil revenues, and the role of Islam. Also to be negotiated is the role of women in the new Iraq.
We've asked Nina Shea to shed some light on the subject. She's director of the Center for Religious Freedom and vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Is there going to be religious freedom in the new Iraq?
NINA SHEA (Director, Center for Religion Freedom, Freedom House): Well, I think that what they are going to try to do is have a carve-out of religious freedom, but it's going to be a dog's breakfast. We're going to see religious freedom, and we're going to see provisions for Islamic law, and basically they're not reconcilable.
SEVERSON: Well, who would prevail? What would prevail?
Ms. SHEA: We don't know who interprets Islamic law, and that's why it is a real threat to democracy and freedom, because when you invoke Islamic law in a constitution -- and a number of countries have: Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran -- there is a constitution behind the constitution. We don't know who's going to do the interpreting. The laws are vague. It really depends on who's interpreting to figure out where women's rights stand or where minorities' rights stand or where the average Muslim even has a chance to dissent or express an opinion that's unorthodox in politics or religion.
SEVERSON: If I understand you correctly, you are saying that in Afghanistan, there is no religious freedom?
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Ms. SHEA: There is no religious freedom in Afghanistan right now. There's no religious freedom for individuals in the Bill of Rights, and there can be no law that contradicts Islam in Afghanistan. Therefore journalists who have criticized the political system have been charged by the state with blasphemy.
SEVERSON: So in Iraq Islamic law would trump all other?
Ms. SHEA: Islamic law would end up trumping women's rights, women's inheritance rights, child custody. Women may not even have equal rights in terms of the weight of their testimony in court. They couldn't substantiate a rape case, for example, because it would be their word against the rapist['s].
SEVERSON: In some ways, wouldn't that be a setback for women who have had more rights in the old Iraq than in many other Middle East countries?
Ms. SHEA: Well, it would be a setback for women in the sense that they would not be able to opt out of these family courts, these Sharia courts, because they don't have religious freedom. But we have to remember, under Saddam Hussein there weren't a lot of rights to begin with.
SEVERSON: Are they going to meet their deadline?
Ms. SHEA: I think they will, but I think because of these deep disagreements about what the future of the country is -- whether it's going to be a democracy with freedom or whether it's going to be an Islamic dictatorship like Iran -- because of that it's going to be a hodgepodge of different rights and obligations.
SEVERSON: There are some who say that the U.S. should stay back, should be aloof from this process, let the Iraqis do it. How do you feel?
Ms. SHEA: I don't agree with that because we have sacrificed so much in terms of blood, in terms of our men and women who have died over there and continue to die to this day, and because of the money the American taxpayer has spent to support this.
SEVERSON: Thank you very much, Nina Shea.
Ms. SHEA: Thank you.
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Related R&E Material:
 Iraq Elections, January 28, 2005
Interview with Roman Catholic Archbishop of Baghdad, August 3, 2004
Iraq's Religious Future, July 18, 2003
Religious Freedom in Postwar Iraq, July 4, 2003
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Related Links:
U.S. News & World Report: "In drafting a constitution, Iraqis try to overcome (or sidestep) issues that could pull the country apart" by Bay Fang, August 15, 2005
Open Source: When Good Constitutions Go Bad, August 15, 2005
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