Ellen Tauscher: “I rise to voice my deep concern over the rights of women in Iraq and urge adoption of this resolution. I am very pleased…”

“I rise to voice my deep concern over the rights of women in Iraq and urge adoption of this resolution. I am very pleased to join my colleagues, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger) and the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) who are my cochairs in the Iraqi Women's Caucus. I know they share my unwavering commitment to ensuring the success of our efforts to stabilize Iraq. As we speak, the Iraqi Constitution is being drafted, and preliminary drafts are being circulated around Baghdad and in the United States. This is the real test of our efforts to bring democracy and stability to Iraq. My colleagues and I have spent countless hours in Iraq, in Jordan prior to the January 30 election, meeting with women candidates, and here in Washington meeting with some of the winners of Iraqi women whose rights are now apparently under attack from extremists in their own country. The attempts by fundamentalists to insert Sharia, a restrictive form of Islamic law, into the constitution, represents an aggressive and intolerable assault on women's rights. The current transitional administrative law states that Islam is to be considered a source of legislation, but not the only source, and that discrimination against an Iraqi citizen of gender is prohibited. But current drafts of the new constitution provide legal rights for women as long as they do not violate Islamic law.…”