Rights groups and many Iraqi women fear the country's parliament will open the door to child marriages as lawmakers consider legal changes that would give religious authorities more power over family law
FILE- Protesters gather to demonstrate against a proposed law to permit underage female marriage in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 8, 2024. Rights groups and many Iraqi women fear the country's parliament will open the door to child marriages as lawmakers consider legal changes that would give religious authorities more power over family law. Shaimaa Saadoun is haunted by her memory of being forced into an abusive marriage to a 39-year-old man just after she turned 13.
But such child marriages of girls might be state-sanctioned soon. 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.
“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.”
In a lecture posted on social media, Shiite cleric Rashid al-Husseini insisted Shariah allows marrying a 9-year-old girl. “But in practice, is this something that actually happens? … It might be zero percent, or 1% of cases," he said. 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.Al-Maliki and other proponents depict the changes as a defense against Western secularism.
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