The Role of Women
Asked about the rights of women under the newly drafted proposed Iraqi constitution, with its deference to Islamic law, Bush replied confidently:
"I talked to Condi, and there is not -- as I understand it, the way the constitution is written is that women have got rights, inherent rights recognized in the constitution, and that the constitution talks about not 'the religion,' but 'a religion.' Twenty-five percent of the assembly is going to be women, which is a -- is embedded in the constitution."
The best I can tell is that Bush was confusing two issues. There's no doubt that Islam is "the" religion recognized by the constitution. Rather, as Fred Kaplan writes in Slate: "Much has been made of the assembly's debate over whether Islam should be declared 'the source' of legislation or merely 'a source.' But look at how it came out: 'a fundamental source' --- which, as professor/blogger Juan Cole notes, amounts to pretty much the same thing as 'the source.' "
Ellen Knickmeyer and Bassam Sebti write in The Washington Post: "The draft says no law can contradict the principles of Islam and leaves it open for individuals to decide whether inheritance, divorce and marriage would be governed by religious or civil law. Opponents say those provisions threaten women's rights, potentially leaving them subject to the edicts of extremist clerics.
" 'Women, they lost hugely in this constitution,' said National Assembly Chairman Hachim Hasani, a Sunni who represented the demands of women's groups during the constitutional debates.
" 'Women had more rights in the past regime than they had now,' Hasani said."
Dexter Filkins writes in the New York Times: "Some secular Iraqi leaders complained Tuesday that the country's nearly finished constitution lays the groundwork for the possible domination of the country by Shiite Islamic clerics, and that it contains specific provisions that could sharply curtail the rights of women. . . .
" 'This is the future of the new Iraqi government - it will be in the hands of the clerics,' said Dr. Raja Kuzai, a secular Shiite member of the Assembly. 'I wanted Iraqi women to be free, to be able to talk freely and to able to move around.'
" 'I am not going to stay here,' said Dr. Kuzai, an obstetrician and women's leader who met President Bush in the White House in November 2003."
Vacation Watch
Richard Benedetto writes in USA Today: "Try as he might to get away during the almost five weeks he's scheduled to be out of the White House, mostly at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, President Bush has had his August vacation shadowed by anti-war demonstrators.
"They have set up camp in Crawford. They have followed him to Idaho where he spent some time Tuesday riding his bike over Rocky Mountain trails north of the Idaho capital.
"Not only are they attacking Bush's Iraq policy, they are protesting that his holiday is inappropriate at a time of war."
