Women, the United Nations, and human rights

    Those who want to guarantee women’s rights, which include moral rights such as dignity and material rights such as providing for living expenses or guaranteeing equality and justice, noting that there are significant differences between justice and fairness, must demand and work to guarantee those rights in their material and moral form, From the material and moral aspects, this means preserving the humanity of women, that is, keeping women away from the rules and provisions of slave markets, In slave markets, women are bought and sold under the title of marriage or marriage, such as temporary marriage, then the marriage of minors, or the conditions of the dowry, and many other customs, traditions, rules, and provisions that conflict with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The application of the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights regarding marriage begins with the title of the marriage contract,The title was and still is in the Arab region “nikah contract”, as if marriage is only for nikah. Marriage is a partnership contract between a woman and a man, and that partnership may not include the element of nikah( sexual intercourse) in almost all cases  Where is the nikah between an elderly or sick woman and an elderly or sick man??? And does the cessation of nikah(sex) mean the end of the marital relationship?

Within the framework of partnership and equality, each party bears their different duties from one partnership to another and receives their different rights from one family to another, All of this takes place within the framework of love and mutual respect between a woman and a man who have become one body with shared interests and shared duties.

Things don’t go smoothly and without problems in every family, In some cases, separation may occur, and the initiative to separate should be the right of each party, Equality does not allow this initiative to be exclusively male, That is, the woman should be able to request separation, and the husband should be able to request separation, There is no need for justification from the woman or the man. It is enough for one of them to claim that he does not want to live with the other party for reasons that neither party is obligated to mention.

In order for    every marriage to end in divorce and to ensure that children are raised and cared for in an acceptable manner, the age of marriage must be determined, This determination is found in the UNESCO provisions, and the countries that signed the UNESCO Convention must abide by the UNESCO laws, which set the minimum age for those who want to marry at 18 years for both men and women, The partnership marriage contract includes ensuring the sufficient psychological and physical health of both parties as well.

There is no adultery or marital infidelity in the marital partnership according to the popular and well-known concept, If a man chooses another relationship with another woman, it practically means separation, and the same applies to a woman who chooses another man, The role of the courts and the law here is limited to regulating this separation in a way that takes into account the interests of the children first and foremost, Financial matters are organized very simply, so the woman gets half and the man gets half of what was earned during the marriage. There is no breadwinner here, and no one owns what the family earned during the marriage, Housework is equivalent in value to professional work outside the home. The children are usually placed under the care of the mother, and the children’s expenses are covered equally by the father and mother, In practice, the man must contribute more to covering the expenses than the mother, because the mother is responsible for the children’s affairs after separation, and the children usually live in her care.

Article 42 of the Iraqi Penal Code of 1969, which permits a man to beat his wife and even his children when he deems it necessary, must be rejected and denounced, Beating is considered a crime, and anyone who beats his wife or children is forcibly divorced from his wife and the children are removed from him by force of law, Beating is not one of the contents of married life, regardless of sacred texts, The judiciary does not know a text that must be adhered to except the civil law, Iraqi law is now rebelling against international rulings regarding the prohibition of child marriage, It is most likely that Iraq will lose the battle over child marriage and will adhere to the provisions of the age of 18.

What we have referred to is the state that the societies of the Arab region will reach in the future, whether they like it or not, and not what they are now. Whoever signs the United Nations agreement must implement the provisions of the United Nations, which are derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Years ago, the United Nations was able to close the slave markets in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and now it is closing these markets in Mali. It was able to criminalize female genital mutilation in Egypt, and the United Nations will become more stringent in the context of globalization with those who violate its provisions, as it is now interfering in the educational curricula of some countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, and others, Iran has been besieged and punished not only by the United States but also by the United Nations.