MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Iraq
Index
Public transportation in Baghdad
Courtesy Mokhless Al-Hariri
Kinship groups are the fundamental social units, regulating
many activities that in Westernized societies are the functions
of political, economic, religious, or neighborhood groups. Rights
and obligations center on the extended family and the lineage.
The family remains the primary focus of loyalty; and it is in
this context, rather than the broader one of corporate loyalties
defined by sectarian, ethnic, or economic considerations, that
the majority of Iraqis find the common denominators of their
everyday lives. A mutually protective attitude among relatives is
taken as a matter of course. Relatives tend to be preferred as
business partners since they are believed to be more reliable
than persons over whom one does not have the hold of kinship
ties. On higher levels, deeply ingrained family loyalty manifests
itself in business and public life.
The characteristic form of family organization involves a
large group of kinsmen related to one another through descent and
marriage, that is, an extended family usually consisting of three
generations. Such an extended family may all live together, which
is the more traditional pattern, or may reside separately like a
nuclear family, but still share the values and functions of an
extended family, such as depending upon one another and deferring
to the older generation. As Iraqi society has become increasingly
urbanized, however, the tendency toward nuclear family social
organization, as opposed merely to residence, has become more
prevalent. The status of an individual is traditionally
determined by the position of his or her family in society and
the individual's position within that group. The family transmits
values and standards of behavior of the society to its members
and holds them responsible for each other's conduct. It
traditionally determines occupations and selects marriage
partners. Kinsmen also cooperate in economic endeavors, such as
farming or trade, and ownership in land and other assets
frequently is vested in the group as a whole. The sharpest degree
of divergence from these patterns occurs among educated urban
Iraqis, an ever-increasing proportion of the society.
Until 1959 family life was subject to regulation only
according to religious law and tradition. All Muslims were
brought under a single body of family law for the first time in
1959 with the enactment of a secular law on personal status,
based on sharia, statutes from other Islamic countries, and legal
precedents established in Iraqi courts; a brief amendment was
enacted in 1963. The law spells out provisions governing the
right to contract marriage, the nature of the contract, economic
rights of the partners, divorce and child custody, as well as
bequests and inheritance.
The basic structural unit of the family consists of a senior
couple, their sons, the sons' wives and children, and unmarried
daughters. Other dependent relatives may also be attached to the
group. The senior male is the head of the family; he manages its
properties and has the final voice in decisions. Kinsmen are
organized into still larger groups. The next level of
organization is the lineage, composed of all persons, male and
female, who trace their descent from a common ancestor. The
number of generations by which this ancestor is removed from the
oldest living one varies; a depth of four to six generations is
usual.
Individuals or whole families of other descent sometimes
attach themselves to a particular lineage in an arrangement of
mutual advantage, becoming recognized after several generations
as full members of the lineage on equal terms with those born
into it. In small villages everyone is likely to belong to the
same lineage; in larger ones there may be two or more lineages in
common but tempered by economic cooperation, intermarriage, and
the authority of the village leadership or elders. Also among
nontribal Iraqis, kinship organization and traditions of common
descent do not go beyond the lineage. Awareness of distant ties
is keen among recent migrants to the cities and among the rural
population.
In rural areas, new households are not usually set up until
many years after the initial recognition of a marriage. In
general, the wife moves in with her husband's parents, where the
young couple remain for some time. Often this arrangement is
maintained until the death of the father. Even when the father
dies, the brothers sometimes stay together, forming joint family
households that include themselves, their wives, and their
children.
The actual number of persons who make up the household is
determined by the family's economic circumstances, pattern of
living, and mode of habitation. In an agricultural setting, as
long as ownership of land and other possessions is vested in the
family as a whole, the possibilities for a young man to set up an
independent household are limited. In urban centers, on the other
hand, young men can avail themselves of wage-earning employment.
Authority within the family is determined by seniority and
sex. The father, in theory, has absolute authority over the
activities of the members of the household, both within the
confines of the house and outside. He decides what education his
children will receive, what occupations his sons will enter, and,
usually in consultation with his wife, whom his children will
marry. These authority patterns also have been greatly weakened
in the urban environment and by the shift of more and more
responsibilities from the family to larger social institutions,
such as the schools.
An even greater change in the traditional pattern of male
dominance has been brought about by the war. Because Iraq is
numerically a much smaller nation than Iran, it has experienced
considerable difficulty maintaining an adequate defense on the
battlefront. To field a sufficient force it has had to draw down
the available labor pool on the home front, and to compensate has
mobilized women. In the mid-1980s, observers reported that in
many ministries the overwhelming proportion of employees were
women. Foreign contractors have encountered women supervisors on
huge construction projects, women doctors in the hospitals, and
even women performing law enforcement roles. This emancipation--
extraordinary for an Arab country--was sanctioned by the
government, which expended a significant amount of propaganda
publicizing the role of women in helping to win the war. The
government further maintained that after the war women would be
encouraged to retain their newfound work roles; this was
doubtful, however, because in the same breath the government
declared its determination to increase the birthrate.
The Muslim majority has traditionally regarded marriage as
primarily a civil contract between two families, arranged by
parents after negotiations, which may be prolonged and conducted
by an intermediary. The arrangement of a marriage is a family
matter in which the needs and position of the corporate kin group
are primary considerations. Prospective partners are often known
to each other, and they frequently come from the same village and
the same kin group. Among educated urban dwellers, the
traditional pattern of contracting marriage is giving way to a
pattern in which the young persons make their own choices, but
parents must still approve.
With regard to marriage and divorce, the 1959 Law of Personal
Status, amended in 1963, liberalized various provisions that
affected the status of women; in practice, however, the Iraqi
judiciary up to the Revolution tended to be conservative in
applying the provisions of the law. Specifically, Iraqi law
required that divorce proceedings be initiated in a court of law,
but the husband still had the controlling role in dissolving the
marriage. Moreover, a man who wanted to marry a second wife was
required first to get approval from the court. Provision was also
made for the custody of children to be based on consideration of
the welfare of the child.
Economic motivation and considerations of prestige and family
strength all contribute to the high value placed on large
families. The greater the number of children, especially sons,
the greater the prestige of the father, and through him that of
the family as a whole. Boys are especially welcome because they
are the carriers of the family tradition, and because their
economic contribution in an agricultural society is greater than
that of girls.
Between the ages of three and six, children are given freedom
to learn by imitating older siblings. Strong emphasis is then
placed on conformity with elders' patterns and on loyalty and
obedience. Family solidarity is stressed. The passage from
adolescence to maturity is swift. Upon reaching puberty, there
traditionally is a separation of sexes, and girls are excluded
from male society except that of their close kin. Great emphasis
is placed on premarital chastity, and this is one reason for
early marriages. Boys have greater freedom during adolescence
than girls and begin to be drawn into the company of their
fathers and the world of men.
Data as of May 1988
|
|