Will Iraqi Women fair well under the new Constitution?

As Bush has told us on several occasions one of the reasons we are in Iraq is to give rights to Iraqi women. Today the Iraqi women were allowed to vote for the new Iraq Constitution but what do they think about it and do they feel their lives will be made better because of it?

A Western official in Baghdad said Friday that the proposed constitution was "a good constitution for women, and very frankly that's something we were very insistent upon."

However, Zakiya Khalifa Zaidi, 73, a well-known actress who is now an activist said, "They call this constitution a tent, but they pulled Iraqi women out of this tent. The constitution was written in a very tense atmosphere. That's why we lost many of our rights amid the chaos."

"Women lost ground in the constitution," agreed Hajim M. Hasani, the speaker of the National Assembly.

According to two Iraqi women, Hanna Milla and Atika Muhanned Sayeed their lives will not change for the better, in fact their lives are much worse.

Milla says of her two daughters, "They have become prisoners of their own home," she said.

Was her own life better than those of her daughters? "Of course," she said.

Women "used to complain in Saddam's times," said Milla's colleague, Atika Muhanned Sayeed. "Now, after complaining, they got worse."

Neither woman has seen a copy of the draft constitution. The many amendments, made up to 72 hours before the vote, left them uncertain about just what it held for women, or what it said at all.

The dealmaking also left them deeply skeptical that political leaders would feel bound by the charter. Neither woman plans to vote on Saturday. "It's all just speeches," Sayeed said. "Just words."

Iraqi Women See Little But Darkness, WaPo