This was the lady from the State of the Union address, Republican convention and photographed with the purple thumb
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HAM421341.htmSecular Iraqis said on Wednesday a proposed new constitution left no room for doubt about the Islamist path the country was heading down two years after a U.S.-led invasion was supposed to produce greater freedoms.
The document presented to parliament on Monday is suffused with the language of political Islam in defining the state, and assigns a primary role to Islam as a source for legislation.
"The draft aborts the democratic process Iraqis hoped for and is a big victory for political Islam," said writer Adel Abdel-Amir. "Islamic law, not the people, has become the source of authority."
The draft says Islam is the official religion of the state and there can be no law that contradicts the "fixed principles of its rulings". The preamble says the constitution responds to "the call of our religious and national leaders and the insistence of our great religious authorities".
Language guaranteeing "rights and freedoms" is subordinate to the primary position given to Islam, opponents say.
"Human rights should not be linked to Islamic Sharia law at all. It should be listed separately in the constitution," said
Safia Souhail, Iraq's ambassador to Egypt.
The prominent women's rights campaigner denounced wording that grants each religious sect the right to run its own family courts -- apparently doing away with previous civil codes -- as an open door to further Islamicise the legal system.
Although in practice, many Iraqis end up having recourse to religious authorities or informal tribal law, the idea of a united civil code is central to the modern state, Souhail said.
"This will lead to creating religious courts. But we should be giving priority to the law," she said.
"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women. But look what has happened -- we have lost all the gains we made over the last 30 years. It's a big disappointment."