The impact of legislation on empowering women A comparative study between the effective Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 and the new draft Iraqi Penal Code

Abstract

Women have occupied a distinct social, economic, political, and religious position in Iraq since the time of its inception. For example, the Hammurabi Sharia has created several texts regulating the family and preserving its status and the role of Babylonian women in ancient Iraq. Women had the right to divorce from husbands, had the right to care for their children, had the right to engage in business, she has legal capacity and financial liability independent of their husbands, and she has the right to care and alimony. It also imposed harsh penalties on a person who mistreats a woman or violates one of her rights established in the aforementioned law. In modern times, women in Iraq have enjoyed relatively better protection than in other countries of the region during most of the last century. The beginning of the rapid deterioration of women's rights in Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War could be monitored, with the former regime using the traditional tribe as a political tool to mobilize loyalty to its weak authority. The United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War also contributed to the exacerbated problem. For example, the gap between males and females in school enrolment (and therefore women's illiteracy) has increased considerably with families under financial pressure that has made them choose to keep girls at home. Iraqi women have also suffered from a variety of violence against them and these practices are growing with the deterioration of humanitarian and security conditions in Iraqi society. Whatever type of violence against women, it constitutes an offense and cannot be derogated from as an offense that must be characterized to achieve its reduction and treatment. Every crime had its cornerstones, which are the material and moral cornerstone,  and it has a perpetrator and the victim, all of this was available in violence against women. The aim of the research is to create a legislative environment that is friendly to women, respects their rights, identity, and humanity, prevents any violation of their human rights, criminalizes any act that constitutes a violation of these rights, and prevents impunity. and this, in turn, will pave the way for their empowerment in all respects. Discriminatory legislation is a frightening challenge to women's empowerment and to any societal, political, economic, or cultural reforms that are intended to advance the reality of women and enhance their status and their role in building society and the country. The problem of the research is that the most violent weapons or means against women are adopted by men when they commit violence against them (law or legislation).  There are a significant number of laws and legislation that constitute violence and discrimination against women and allow or justify men's violence against women, as well as, the absence of legislation criminalizing acts committed by men against women constitutes violence and a violation of women's rights, human rights, and dignity, which poses a serious threat to women's advancement and empowerment. The most serious of this legislation is the Iraqi Penal Code in force No. 111 of 1969, and that's what we'll learn through our study.