Iraq civil activists fight to preserve constitutional rights
Despite the civil rights safeguarded by the Iraqi constitution, conservative political parties have been increasing restricting citizens’ freedoms in recent years.
Conservative political parties of different affiliations have been controlling the political and security landscape in Iraq over the past years. However, all of them have attempted to restrict women’s freedoms and rights. These attempts are still continuing, despite the popular resistance that succeeded in curbing a series of decisions and actions that seemed to belong to the Middle Ages.
There have been undeclared decisions to impose the veil on female employees in some government departments. This is not to mention the decisions of some local governments in the provinces of Wasit and Muthanna, for instance, to force women who are members of the local authorities to be accompanied by their husbands, fathers or brothers during their work and when they leave their houses.
Of course, things do not end with the Jaafari personal status law, which sparked a series of angry reactions from Iraqi civil activists, who considered the law to be an insult to Iraqi women.
In light of all these undeclared measures and some explicit decisions to create pressure on women, the pertinent question is: Are Iraqi officials aware that such decisions and measures constitute a violation of the Iraqi constitution, and set the stage for Iraq to become culturally, socially and politically alienated from the world?
