Reading the Iraqi Constitution

Last night I was reading bits of The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 before bed. This is the kind of book that's really good for that. The book covers a wide range of types of content (from lists to essays to short stories to graphic novels) and excerpts enough to give you a really good taste. This kind of book has often been relegated to the bathroom (the other place you might want small sections to read), but as nighttime reading, I find them great.

Anyway, I was flipping to the next section in this book last night and hit on the full copy of the Iraqi constitution that was included in the volume. Reading through it, I think you can get a much clearer picture of what Iraq is like as a country currently than what you see in the news.

It covers a HUGE range of topics. Many of them seem perfectly reasonable to my American sensibilities. Some are more progressive than what we have here (universal health care, etc.). Others make my mental images of the American founding fathers twinge with pain (putting many rights violations only a single bit of legislation away from being perfectly legal).

But, then there's the stuff that just strikes me as odd. The most striking example is the complete text of Article 36:

Article 36: The state guarantees in a way that does not violate public order and morality:
A. Freedom of expression, through all means.
B. Freedom of press, printing, advertisement, media and publication.
C. Freedom of assembly and peaceful demonstration. This shall be regulated by law. D. Every Iraqi has the right to engage in sports, and the State should encourage its activities and promotion and will provide its necessities

I was right there with them nodding along until letter "D". I actually had to read this section 3 times before I was sure I read it right. Yep. Sports right there next to freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration.

Overall the resulting document doesn't suprise me much. It resembles pretty much every other document written by a committee throughout history. Go and read it for yourself.