Drafts of the new Iraqi constitution show an alarming disregard for women’s rights, and the United States must do everything within its power to guarantee that women aren’t locked into a permanent, second-class status.

Copies of the constitution, which is scheduled to be completed Aug. 15, include elements of Islamic law that roll back many of the rights of women, many of which were granted even under the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussein. According to documents obtained by both The Associated Press and The New York Times, the constitution would place matters of family law almost entirely under the control of religious leaders.

While there are many interpretations of Islam, each with its own set of rules on the rights of women, most would represent a move backward for women in Iraq. In other Middle Eastern countries, religious law allows for the use of rape as a punishment against women, permits honor killings and public stonings. Women can be denied property and inheritance rights and are treated as little more than the personal property of their husbands, to be used and discarded at will.

Denying women equal rights and opportunity, beyond its obvious immoral and criminal implications, would also doom the new Iraq to a retarded economy and society that fail to capitalize on half of their potential. One of the leading factors to the economic stagnation common throughout much of the Middle East is the limits placed upon women. Productivity and creativity are willingly sacrificed by despotic leaders and shortsighted clerics who put the repression of women above the welfare of their country.

On Monday, the new American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, criticized turning women’s rights over to Islamic law and said the Bush administration was committed to guaranteeing equal rights for all of Iraq’s citizens. In 2004, the Bush administration dedicated $27 million to women’s programs and took a strong stand on the importance of the issue for Iraq’s success.

Writing in The Washington Post, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz put it plainly: “A government that does not respect the rights of half its citizens cannot be trusted to safeguard the rights of any.”

What’s not clear is how the United States can impose its will upon an Iraqi government struggling for its own survival. What is clear, however, is that an Iraqi democracy that does not include women is a failure, unworthy of the sacrifices that have been made to give it a chance at life.