WASHINGTON, July 21: Iraqis would make ‘a terrible mistake’ in adopting any constitution that sharply curbs women’s rights, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday. “I personally believe that any country that does not include half of their population in a reasonable way is making a terrible mistake in terms of the future of that country and the prospects for that country and the opportunities for that country,” Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news briefing.

Rumsfeld was responding to questions about the possibility a constitution being drafted in Baghdad might erode equality for women.

“The subject you raise is a matter (that) the US Department of State and the White House are worrying through with the Iraqi people,” he said. “Of course I’m aware of it — it’s not something that falls within the Department of Defense responsibility.”

The New York Times reported from Baghdad on Wednesday that a working draft of Iraq’s new constitution could sharply curb women’s rights, particularly in personal matters like divorce and family inheritance.

Members of the committee said, however, there were many different drafts in circulation and that women would have equal rights under the law.

“There will be no humiliation for women,” said committee member Kassim Daoud.

The newspaper reported the document’s writers were also debating whether to drop or phase out a measure enshrined in the interim constitution, co-written last year by the Americans, requiring that women make up at least a quarter of the parliament.

It said the draft of one chapter of the new constitution obtained by the Times guarantees equal rights for women as long as those rights do not ‘violate Sharia’.

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council on Wednesday declined to comment on what he called ‘an alleged leaked draft which may or may not reflect the work of the committee’.—Reuters