Iraq
An Iraqi woman holds a placard reading “no to underage marriage” during a demonstration against a proposed amendment to the Personal Status Law in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad on August 8, 2024. Photo: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United Nations deputy secretary-general on Tuesday labeled a proposed amendment to Iraq’s personal status law that could effectively legalize child marriage as “an assault on childhood.”
“The Iraqi Parliament’s proposal to lower the legal marriage age for girls from 18 to 9 years old is an assault on childhood,” UN deputy Amina Mohammed said in a post on X.
A bill to amend the 1959 Personal Status Law is currently on the Iraqi parliament’s agenda. If passed, it would allow Iraqis to choose to follow religious rules to govern matters in their marriage. For Shiites, the proposed bill specifies following the provisions of the Jaafari school of jurisprudence, which permits marriage for girls as young as nine and boys at fifteen.
“Girls are not spouses—they are children who deserve their right to grow up with protection and dignity,” she stressed.
In September, Iraq’s federal supreme court released an interpretation of articles within the constitution, reaffirming the right of citizens to manage personal status matters based on their religion, sect, beliefs, or choices. Personal status involves decisions, contracts, and agreements in Iraq such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance.
Rights activists have protested the amendments and have staged demonstrations across Iraq, including in the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil.
The bill also faced opposition from religious scholars in the Kurdistan Region.
In September, the Islamic Scholars Association in Kurdistan said that the proposal “poses a significant threat to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region,” by seeking to “undermine the judiciary” through establishing “marriage offices” outside the courts.
In the same month, women lawmakers began collecting signatures demanding the parliament “permanently withdraw the proposed amendment” from its agenda.
In August, an Iraqi coalition of NGOs, activists, and legislators opposing the amendment released a statement, saying that “certain parties within the house of representatives [parliament] are trying to pressure to pass the amendment of the current personal status law, which has faced great rejection and concern in Iraqi public opinion… which affects the interests of all citizens, women, and men.”
Many marriages in Iraq are unregistered, conducted by religious leaders, and not legally valid. The proposed amendment calls for legitimizing marriages authorized by religious leaders.
The amendment was demanded by over 100 Shiite members of parliament but has faced backlash from the rest of the legislature. In August, around 130 lawmakers signed a petition against its passage.
The bill was introduced by independent MP Raed al-Maliki, who also proposed controversial amendments to the anti-prostitution law earlier this year, criminalizing any practice of homosexuality and sex-reassignment surgeries.
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