Because many Iraqis resent U.S. intervention, fundamentalist Islamic views continue to spread rapidly throughout Iraq as a form of resistance to westernization. This is bad news for Iraqi women, since Shariah, or Islamic law, grants few rights to women.

Women worked in the media, in ministries, in factories and as professionals under Saddam, but women have trouble finding work in Iraq today since a woman’s place is increasingly seen as the home. Yanar Mohammed, an Iraqi woman’s rights activist, laments, “There are armed men everywhere. If you go without the protection of the scarf, they can stop you and you may get assaulted. And there’s pressure from the husbands and fathers. Being good and chaste means you put on a veil.” Mohammed says that women were not pressured to don Islamic dress during Saddam’s regime.

Then there’s the fact that United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite Islamic party, captured a majority of parliament seats in the January elections. The parliament’s main tasks include approving a prime minister and writing a constitution, and the United Iraqi Alliance has nominated Ibrahim al-Jaafari, an Islamic scholar, to be prime minister. Al-Jaafari and other Shiite leaders have made it clear that they oppose creating a constitution and legislation that “contradicts Islam.” In the best case scenario, legal adherence to Islam means “applying Shariah to civil and family laws, according fewer rights to women than men in areas such as marriage, divorce and inheritance,” says Joyce Wiley, professor at the University of South Carolina. In the worst case scenario, an Islamic-inspired constitution will require all women to wear headscarves and conform to other strict fundamentalist behavior guidelines.

Obviously, Shiite women wishing to don a veil or participate in activities deemed appropriate for Islamic women should be allowed to do so. However, women who don’t share Shiite beliefs must not be legally obligated to conform to these beliefs. Iraqi women such as Tara Husham are relying on the secularist Kurds elected to 75 out of 275 parliament seats to maintain separation of church and state. If Islamic ideology prevails, Husham and other non-religious Iraqi women say they are counting on Bush to fight for their rights. Declares Husham, “I am sure America doesn’t want that (Islamic government). I’m sure they have a plan.”

Yet we obviously didn’t have a plan that took women’s rights into account when we initially invaded Iraq, seeing as for all our talk about “liberation” we made life more restrictive for Iraqi women. To oust Saddam without brooding Iraqi resentment, the United States could have sponsored an uprising of the Iraqi people rather than undertaking external invasion. Our failure to act according to the possibility of Islamic backlash and the subsequent negative effect on Iraqi women remains inexcusable. Before our nation decides to commence large-scale international action, we need to consider the ramifications of the action for all affected people, both male and female.

Unlike Husham, I doubt our government will interfere if Iraq drafts a non-secular constitution that affords women few rights. Call me crazy, but women’s rights don’t appear to be number one on the Bush administration’s agenda. Furthermore, we’re too busy muddying the line between church and state in our own country to plug separation of church and state in another country. Since forcing non-Christian Americans to say “under God” when reciting the pledge of allegiance, for example, is comparable to forcing non-Islamic Iraqis to wear headscarves, how can we argue with the latter?

Here’s to hoping that Iraqi women aren’t out of luck because America didn’t consider the gender ramifications of forced regime change. Here’s to hoping that Iraqi government is more open-minded than our own government and will consider the demands and rights of secularists. Here’s to hoping the parliament will build a constitution that reflects Iraqi culture yet does not impose Islamic law on non-Islamic women, granting democracy and liberation to women as well as to men.

Therese Rogers is a sophomore in LAS. Her columns run Mondays. She can be reached at [email protected].