The Iraqi Personal Status Law of 1959, Law No. 188, restricted polygamy, declared equal inheritance rights for women and men, raised the marriage age for women to sixteen, required stricter thresholds for men seeking divorce, allowed women to file for divorce and ensured that brides received their bridal payment and support. Law No. 188 was not only the first of its kind to be shaped by women, but it also secularized and unified Iraqi courts formerly run by religious judges. Contrary to perceptions of Law No. 188 as “revolutionary” in nature-- often suggested by scholars such as J.N.D Anderson and Noga Efrati-- this project claims the law was a starting point, rather than a monumental victory. Using the writings of three Iraqi feminist authors, Dr. Naziha al-Dulaimi, Sabiha al-Shaikh Duad, and Suad Khayri, I argue that women’s ideas encompassed more than what the law provided for. Among their writings, they included maternity care, political rights, economic liberty, education, health and inequality-- all missing from the law.
Dr. Naziha al-Dulaimi was the first woman cabinet member in Iraq, and her writing focused on women’s needs for healthcare, legal marriage equality, and economic independence. Sabiha al-Shaikh Duad was a leader for the Iraqi Women’s Union and wrote about the women’s lack of education and political rights, arguing for women to obtain the right to vote. Suad Khayri was a feminist in the 1950s who lived through the enactment of Law No. 188. Khayri, in her writings, criticized the law thirty years after 1958, claiming the law was a “launch” of women’s rights, but did not radically help women’s situation in marriage and divorce, since the law granted men more rights. The significance of using these authors is the diverse point of views, which revealed the development and diversity of the Iraqi feminist movement before and after the law. While the women’s cause could easily be mistaken for a singular movement, their divergence proves the complexity of the Iraqi women’s movement. For example, while al-Dulaimi was a leader in the Iraqi Communist Party, Duad’s family was loyal to the monarchy. Key to this study is challenging the notion of Iraqi women as passive, when, in cases such as Law No.188, they had defined their own positions and catalyzed change despite the social limitations of their nation in the 1950s.