Home World Iraq lowers legal marriage age for girls to NINE

Iraq lowers legal marriage age for girls to NINE

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Iraqi women hold banners and chant slogans during a protest against the amendment of the Personal Status Law, in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, Iraq.

The Iraqi parliament today approved several laws that, according to critics, effectively legalize child marriage for girls up to nine years old.

Amendments to Iraq’s personal status law will give Islamic courts greater authority over family matters including marriage, divorce and inheritance, a dramatic change to unified family law and safeguards for women established in 1959 .

Iraqi law currently sets 18 as the minimum age for marriage in most cases, but changes approved Tuesday would allow clerics to rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law.

Some of these interpretations allow the marriage of girls in their teens – or even nine years old – under the Ja’afari school of Islamic law followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq.

Proponents of the changes, which were advocated primarily by conservative Shiite lawmakers, defend them as a means to align the law with Islamic principles and reduce Western influence on Iraqi culture.

But Intisar al-Mayali, a human rights activist and member of the Iraqi Women’s League, said the approval of the amendments to the civil status law “will leave disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls due to marriage.” girls at an early age.

‘This violates their right to life as children and will disrupt women’s divorce, custody and inheritance protection mechanisms,’ declared the activist.

Iraqi women hold banners and chant slogans during a protest against the amendment of the Personal Status Law, in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, Iraq.

Iraqi women demonstrate against underage marriage in Tahrir Square

Iraqi women demonstrate against underage marriage in Tahrir Square

This amendment

This amendment “will have disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls due to the marriage of girls at a young age,” says Iraqi human rights activist Intisar al-Mayali.

The parliamentary session in which the amendments were approved ended in chaos and accusations of procedural violations.

“Half of the legislators present in the session did not vote, which broke the legal quorum,” said a parliamentary official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public comments.

He said some MPs protested loudly and others took to the parliamentary podium.

After the session, several legislators complained about the voting process, in which the three controversial laws, each of which had the support of different blocs, were voted on together.

“As for the civil status law, we strongly support it and there were no problems with it,” said Raid al-Maliki, an independent parliamentarian.

“But it was combined with other laws that were voted together… and this could lead to a legal challenge to the Federal Court.”

Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani in a statement praised the adoption of the laws as “an important step in the process of improving justice and organizing the daily lives of citizens.”

Parliament also passed a general amnesty law that is seen as benefiting Sunni detainees and has been criticized for giving a pass to people involved in corruption and embezzlement.

The chamber passed a land restitution law aimed at addressing Kurdish land claims.

The proposed amendments to the law were first announced in August, sparking a wave of protests in Baghdad.

Since many Iraqi marriages are carried out informally and are not registered, the revisions will allow figures from the Sunni and Shiite religious sects to finalize unions between legal entities.

The law previously stated that marriage requires “a sound mind and reaching 18 years of age,” with provisions for women fleeing abuse by voiding a contract.

Proposed amendments to the law, including lowering the age of marriage for women, were first announced in August, sparking a wave of protests in Baghdad.

Proposed amendments to the law, including lowering the age of marriage for women, were first announced in August, sparking a wave of protests in Baghdad.

Protesters hold signs in English and Arabic calling for a secular law to protect children.

Protesters hold signs in English and Arabic calling for a secular law to protect children.

An Iraqi woman holds a banner that says in Arabic

An Iraqi woman holds a banner that says in Arabic “amending the Personal Status Law will deepen social division” during a protest in Baghdad on August 8, 2024.

Fifteen-year-olds can submit a marriage application, which judges can choose to approve if they consider the individual to be well and obtain the consent of their legal guardian.

A judge could allow a 15-year-old girl to marry “if he or she deems it absolutely necessary,” the law states, without providing further details.

Under the new laws, Muslim couples marrying would choose a Sunni or Shiite sect, which could represent them in “all matters of personal status,” rather than the civil judiciary.

“When a dispute arises between the spouses regarding the doctrine according to whose provisions the marriage contract was concluded, the contract will be considered concluded in accordance with the husband’s doctrine, unless proven otherwise,” the project says.

And figures in each ‘endowment’ office could end marriages, rather than the courts.

This can also make unregistered marriages (more than a fifth of which involve girls under 14) legitimized by the state.

The current amendments circulating do not directly address the issue of child marriages, but earlier drafts did, inspiring harsh and continued criticism from human rights activists.

Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), told Middle East Eye that the Coordination Framework was using the changes to distract from its own “corruption” and political failures.

He said the proposals served to “terrorize Iraqi women and civil society with legislation that strips away all the rights that Iraqi women have gained in modern times.”

Ms. Mohammed added that the bill would “impose on them archaic Islamic sharia that views women as bodies for pleasure and breeding, and not as human beings with human rights.”

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