The heavy sand storm in Baghdad earlier this week may have kept Iraqi political leaders from gathering to discuss the constitution, but it did not stop Iraqi women from holding a demonstration in Fardous square in Baghdad.
Mohammed at Iraq the Model shares pictures of the demonstration, and relates conversations with Islamist women who held a small counter demonstration: "No to immorality and dissolution" they called, illustrating the way Islamists play into the fears of a conservative society by equality women's rights with sexual promiscuity.
But not all religious women are falling for this, Mohammed also reports that last week in the holy city of Najaf, women from 17 civil society organizations expressed their concerns:
"We want a civil law to govern issues like marriage and inheritance and we also want to reactivate the related international treaties that Iraq had already signed and approved long time ago and even the existing civil law that we support needs to be modified and improved in a way that matches the needs and rights of Iraqi women and we insist that Islam must not be the only source of legislation".
So far, the women of Iraq - and their male supporters - have been the most active and forceful voice pushing back on Islamist attempts to turn Iraq into an Islamic state. Their struggle is about a lot more than merely granting women the same rights as men: it's about freedom of religion, freedom of belief, freedom of conscience, and whether the new Iraq will be a step forward or a step backward in the Middle East.
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