Baghdad: Iraqi law sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage in most cases. But, Iraq's parliament is considering controversial legal changes that would give religious authorities more power over family law matters, a move that rights groups and opponents warn could open the door to the marriage of girls as young as 9. According to a report by The Telegraph, the governing coalition says the move aligns with a strict interpretation of Islamic law and is intended to protect young girls from "immoral relationships".
The push for the changes comes mainly from powerful Shiite Muslim political factions backed by religious leaders that have increasingly campaigned against what they describe as the West imposing its cultural norms on Muslim-majority Iraq. In April, the parliament passed a harsh anti-LGBTQ+ law.
Iraq marriage laws
The proposed amendments would allow Iraqis to turn to religious courts on issues of family law, including marriage, which currently are the sole domain of civil courts. That would let clerics rule according to their interpretation of Shariah, or Islamic law, as opposed to national laws. Some clerics interpret Shariah to allow marriage of girls in their early teens--or as young as 9 under the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq.
Iraq’s personal status law passed in 1959 is broadly perceived as a strong foundation largely protecting women's and children’s rights. It set the legal marriage age at 18, though it allows girls as young as 15 to marry with parental consent and medical proof that the girl has hit puberty and is menstruating. Marriages outside state courts were forbidden. Still, enforcement is lax. Individual judges sometimes approve younger marriages, whether because of corruption or because the marriage has already taken place informally.
Parliamentarian Raed al-Maliki, who presented the proposed amendments, said the state would still provide protections and that discussions were still taking place about a minimum marriage age. The age will be “very close to the current law,” al-Maliki told the news agency AP, without elaborating.
Massive backlash from Iraqi women
Many Iraqi women have reacted with horror, holding protests outside parliament and campaigning against the changes on social media. “Legislating a law that brings back the country 1,500 years is a shameful matter … and we will keep rejecting it until the last breath,” Heba al-Dabbouni, an activist among dozens at a protest in August, told The Associated Press. “The Iraqi parliament’s job is to pass laws that will raise the standards of society.”
Conservative legislators say the changes give people a choice whether to use civil or religious law, and argue they are defending families from secular, Western influences. Human Rights Watch Iraq researcher Sarah Sanbar said the changes prioritize the husband’s preference. “So, yes it’s giving a choice, but it’s giving a choice to men first and foremost.”
Not the first time
This wasn’t the first such set of amendments to be proposed over the past decade. But now, Shiite parties are more unified behind them. Harith Hasan, a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, says Shiite parties previously had different priorities, focused on the many conflicts rocking the country the past two decades. “Now there is sort of a consensus” among them on cultural issues, he said, adding that the new amendments would create “institutionalized sectarianism” in Iraq and could weaken civil courts.
“When they say it is the right of religious officials to handle marriage, inheritance, divorce, and the court cannot challenge this, you create two parallel authorities,” Hasan said. “This will create confusion in the country.”
Saadoun, who now lives in IrbiI, in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, said she fears for women and girls in Iraq. “The new amendments in the personal status law will destroy the future of many little girls and many generations,” she said.
(With inputs from agency)
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