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In a closed door meeting late last year, the Iraqi Governing Council narrowly passed a resolution to use Sharia'ah, or Islamic law, in place of the family laws instituted under Saddam Hussein. The old laws were among the most liberal in the Middle East, and now Iraq's women, along with other groups are loudly protesting the introduction of Shari'ah.

The Washington Post is reporting in a story being picked up around the country that "outraged Iraqi women—from judges to cabinet ministers—denounced the decision in street protests and at conferences, saying it would set back their legal status by centuries and could unleash emotional clashes among various Islamic strains that have differing rules for marriage, divorce and other family issues."

The decision, which must be approved by Chief U.S. Administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer, is not likely to become law while the U.S. is rebuilding the country. However, once power is returned to Iraq in June, the conservative Shiites who passed the resolution, may simply try again.

Yesterday, CTreported the Afghanistan constitution, which originally had references to Shari'ah, may be seen as a model for Iraq. Experts said the final version of the Afghan constitution had deleted references to Shari'ah due in large part to U.S. pressure.

Also, Hume Horan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a senior Coalition Provisional Authority adviser on religious affairs, in an interview with PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly said he does not believe an Iranian-style Islamic state is in the works for Iraq.

This is not the image or model which appeals to average Shia. There are quite a few Shia I have met who are moderate and observing, who are somewhat secular, who say, "I want some of these clerics to butt out of my life, yet I respect them." This is why I respect Ayatollah Sistani [Iraq's highest-ranking Shia cleric] so much. He is called to take a position but does so in a way that is moderate, and by and large we don't want clerics to be overly prescriptive in our daily lives. That probably does represent the subdued majority of educated Shiites.

Iraq's secular state under Saddam has given freedoms to women that, it seems, they will not easily relinquish. The Post says, "Women had been allowed to assume a far more modern role than in many other Muslim countries and had been shielded from some of the more egregiously unfair interpretations of Islam advocated by conservative, male-run Muslim groups." One Iraqi council member said, "We don't want to be isolated from modern developments … What hurts most is that the law of the tyrant Saddam was more modern than this new law."

The policy was written vaguely, which is troubling to Iraqis. As in Afghanistan, the unclear law could allow for a range of interpretation across the country, depending on the views of the Islamic cleric. The law could exacerbate tensions among the many minority communities in Iraq. Horan, in his Religion and Ethics interview outlines the many factions fighting for power in the new Iraqi government. Hopefully, lessons learned in Afghanistan and currently in Iraq will provide the basis for a constitution that is fair to Sunnis, Shiites, Christians, Kurds and others.

More on Islam and Shari'ah:

• Thousands of Iraqis Journey to Mecca | Record numbers of Iraqis have applied for a permit this year from Saudi Arabia to make the journey to Mecca, and thousands of the winners crowded onto fleets of buses Thursday that rumbled out of a Baghdad sports stadium to a soundtrack of ecstatic ululations and religious songs.

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January (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48