Fighting for Their Future

But these days when members gather in their shabby office, the talk is of an unexpected consequence of the dictator's overthrow: a decision by the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council to replace the country's civic family laws with Islamic Sharia.

"We had a war with a tyrant regime, but now we have another kind of war," said Aida Ayeedi, a teacher at the College of Agriculture in Baghdad. "This war is with those religious men who think that women are just instruments to bear children and create the next generation."

Pushed through with little discussion, primarily by the Shiite Muslim members of the council, the measure would shift women's fates from the hands of judges to those of clerics, most likely chosen by their husbands, who may have little commitment to protecting their rights. For many women, that would roll back what they had under Hussein, who granted them a measure of personal if not political freedom -- albeit one spiked by a constant fear for their families.

Technically, the measure cannot go into effect until it is signed by the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, and it is unlikely that L. Paul Bremer III, a strong proponent of involving women in governance, would do so. But as soon as the U.S. hands over power to Iraqis this summer, it could be enacted.

"We can't ever let this law be passed," said Maysun Damluji, an architect who is serving as deputy culture minister and is organizing a grass-roots movement to block it.

The measure's passage highlights the danger that Iraqi sovereignty will fail to yield the pluralistic democracy with protection for individual rights that President Bush has set as his goal. The peremptory manner in which Sharia was approved also suggests that at least for the moment, it will be difficult for underrepresented groups such as women to wield political influence in Iraq.

Iraqi women are perhaps the most diverse in the Arab world. In an hour's walk through the busy Karada shopping neighborhood in Baghdad, one can encounter highly Westernized professionals who eschew head scarves known as hijab, wear pantsuits and look people squarely in the eye. But there are also women covered by the full black robes known as abayas, wearing tight black scarves that reveal not a strand of hair. And there are those in between, who wear loose, shapeless clothing in neutral or pastel shades, their heads covered casually with hijab, their hair visible.