‘The end of women and children’s rights’: outrage as Iraqi law allows child marriage

Iraqi MPs and women’s rights groups have reacted with horror to the Iraqi parliament passing a law permitting children as young as nine years old to marry, with activists saying it will “legalise child rape”.

Under the new law, which was agreed yesterday, religious authorities have been given the power to decide on family affairs, including marriage, divorce and the care of children. It abolishes a previous ban on the marriage of children under the age of 18 in place since the 1950s.

“We have reached the end of women’s rights and the end of children’s rights in Iraq,” said the lawyer Mohammed Juma, one of the most prominent opponents of the law.

The Iraqi journalist Saja Hashim said: “The fact that clerics have the upper hand in deciding the fate of women is terrifying. I fear everything that will come in my life as a woman.”

Activists said they feared the law would now also be applied retroactively to cases filed in courts before it was enacted, affecting rights to alimony and custody.

Raya Faiq, spokesperson for the feminist group Coalition 188, said: “We received an audio recording of a woman crying her eyes out because of the passage of this law, with her husband threatening to take her daughter away unless she gives up her rights to financial support.”

Child marriage has been a longstanding issue in Iraq, where 28% of girls were married before they turned 18, a 2023 UN survey found.

While marriage is presented to some underage girls as a chance to escape poverty, many of the marriages end in failure, bringing lifelong consequences for young women, including social shame and a lack of opportunities because of unfinished schooling.

Instead of tightening laws against underage marriage and helping girls from poorer backgrounds to complete their education, the new law allows the marriage of minors according to the religious sect under which the marriage contract is concluded.

For Shia Muslims, which make up the majority in Iraq, the lowest age of marriage for girls will be nine years old, while for Sunnis, the official age will be 15.

Sajjad Salem, an independent MP, said: “The Iraqi state has never witnessed a decline and profanity that harmed Iraq’s wealth and reputation as we are witnessing today.”

Alia Nassif, a member of the parliament’s legal committee, said in a post online that the vote took place without the minimum number of MPs required to pass a law being present and that she and other opponents of the law would be going to the Iraqi federal court to challenge the decision.

Benin Elias, an Iraqi journalist and women’s rights advocate, said: “I am not shocked. But this is not the time for tears nor surrender to barbaric decisions.”