Iraq

Bremer vows U.S. will protect women's rights

KARBALA, Iraq - L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, dropped into this holy city on Monday to give the revolution a gentle nudge.

Bremer shook hands with a group of Iraqi women, some of whom needed the permission of their husbands before they could attend the day's events. He posed with them in pictures, with some standing in the head-to-toe abayas worn by Iraqi women for centuries. He inspected a range of women's projects being carried out with American money.

With about 100 Iraqi women seated before him, Bremer promised the United States' continued support for the profound changes under way for Iraq's women.

"Anyone seeing all this talent and ability here, they would recognize that barriers placed in the way of women are barriers to the development and growth and prosperity of Iraq, and indeed the Arab world," he told them. "We in the coalition are committed to continuing to promote women's rights in Iraq."

The event was the opening of the Zainab al-Hawraa Center for Women's Rights, a former Baath Party building converted with $163,000 in U.S. money to a place where women can acquire job skills and learn about their political rights.

Bremer said the current draft of an interim constitution, due to take effect at the end of the month, would make Islam the state religion and "a source of inspiration for the law" - but not the main source for that law.

However, Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, the current president of the Iraqi Governing Council and a Sunni Muslim hard-liner, has proposed making Islamic law the "principal basis" of legislation.

Iraqi women's groups fear that could cost them the rights they hold under Iraq's longtime secular system, especially in such areas as divorce, child support and inheritance.

Bremer was asked what would happen if Iraqi leaders wrote into the interim charter that Islamic sharia law is the principal basis of legislation. "Our position is clear," Bremer replied. "It can't be law until I sign it."

Also Monday:

An explosion in a corner of an elementary school playground in northern Baghdad killed at least one child and injured three.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks. One was killed when a roadside bomb went off near Baquba, about 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. The second soldier was killed and another was wounded when an explosive erupted in Baghdad.

World and national headlines

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright