Tuesday, February 10, 2004
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Message sent to the following recipients:
President Bush
Powell
Chief Administrator in Iraq Bremer
February 10, 2004
Dear [recipient name was inserted here],
Iraqi women are entitled to have a say over their status in marriage. They need to have a say regarding the custody of children and have a right to divorce if feel it necessary.
Do not let the US-backed Iraqi Governing Council place family law under
Islamic jurisdiction.
Why did we go to war if not to bring positive change to the lives of the
oppressed. We destroyed so much, please let us now fulfill our word and
assist these people to know the justice of democracy.
Please pressure the Iraqi Governing Council to overturn Resolution 137.
Sincerely,
[recipient address was inserted here]
Kitty Burbank
Send a message to the Bush Administration that the recent move to cancel current family laws and to place family law under the jurisdiction of Islamic (sharia) law is unacceptable. The US-backed Iraqi Governing Council has outraged Iraqi women and women’s rights activists by approving Resolution 137 that will undermine the right to equality and freedom for all of Iraq’s women.
Iraqi women’s rights activists protested putting these areas under Islamic law because they would destroy the status of Iraqi women’s rights regarding marriage, child custody, divorce and inheritance. According to Zakia Ismael Hakki, a prominent Iraqi female judge, "this new law will send Iraqi families back to the Middle Ages. It will allow men to have four or five or six wives. It will take away children from their mothers. It will allow anyone who calls himself a cleric to open an Islamic court in his house and decide who can marry and divorce and have rights.” -- feminist.org.
