IRAQI WOMEN 1, ISLAMISTS 0

  Informe de  DEXTER FILKINS en “The New York Times” del 28/02/2004

 BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 27 — Some Iraqi leaders said Friday that the deadline for completing the country's temporary constitution might not be met following a clash over the role of Islamic clerics in family law.

Mahmood Othman, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said that several Shiite members of the council stormed out of the chambers Friday following the repeal of a proposal that would have given Islamic clerics a role in adjudicating family disputes.

The deadline for completing the constitution is Saturday. "It will not be finished," Mr. Othman said. "We need more time."

The atmosphere was so strained by the walkout of the Shiite members that L. Paul Bremer III, the chief American administrator here, summoned the entire Governing Council to his residence for dinner to help ease the tension.

The debate over the temporary constitution has been strained by a number of issues, especially the role of Islam in governing the country.

The confrontation over the imposition of Islamic religious principles in family matters has been brewing since December, when the Governing Council, led by the representative of a conservative Shiite party, allowed each major religious group to apply its own traditions to family affairs.

Under many interpretations of Islamic law, a woman's right to divorce and inheritance are strictly limited. Some interpretations of Islamic law also allow polygamy, as well as permit men to marry girls.

Many Iraqi women expressed concern at the legislation, and Mr. Bremer did not sign it, preventing it from taking effect.

Some of the women on the Governing Council, however, vowed to repeal the legislation, in part to send a message to a future sovereign Iraqi government.

On Friday, the council, led by Dr. Raja Habib Khuzai, a female Shiite member of the council, voted to repeal the law. With that, according to council members, five male Shiite members of the council stormed out of the room.

"I am very proud of what we did today," said Dr. Khuzai, a physician from Diwaniya in southern Iraq. "Under this law, everyone had to go to the clerics. Women would have had very few rights."