Iraqis would make “a terrible mistake” in adopting any constitution that sharply curbs women’s rights, Defense 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 lean so heavily on Islamic law it could 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 would cede a strong role to Islamic law and 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,” or Koranic law.The Americans and secular Iraqis banished such explicit references to religious law from the interim constitution adopted early last year, the Times said. 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.”

“This is an Iraqi effort,” spokesman Frederick Jones said. “The Iraqi Constitutional Committee has not released an official draft. We’re supportive of their efforts to complete the constitution drafting by August 15 and of ensuring that the constitution contains full protection for human rights and other freedoms.” Rumsfeld lamented the killing on Tuesday of three Sunni Muslim Arabs associated with the constitutional drafting committee. Four other Sunni members of the committee walked out on Wednesday in protest of the murders and what they said was a general lack of security.

“It (the killings) underscores the nature of the fight in Iraq,” Rumsfeld said. “If violent extremists do such things to these people and to innocent Iraqi children, it is clear what kind of a regime theirs would be – particularly a regime with the resources that Iraq has and the close working relationship between the terrorists and al Qaeda.” Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the briefing the United States “some time ago” agreed to provide support for protecting some senior Iraqi leaders. He declined to provide details or to say whether US troops were directly involved.