Fears girls as young as nine could become brides under Iraqi bill

Amnesty International fear changes in Iraq’s Personal Status Law will lead to the legalisation of unregistered unions with child marriage laws dodged

Protesters demonstrate proposed measures that campaigners say could lead to child brides in Tahrir Square in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in July (AP)

Girls as young as nine could enter marriages under new measures being proposed in Iraq that could also see divorce protections for women revoked, human rights campaigners have warned.

Amnesty International has raised fears over the rights of women and girls ahead of a forthcoming parliamentary vote on a potential overhaul to Iraq’s Personal Status Law.

Under the proposed amendments, religious councils of the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam in Iraq would be allowed to establish their own “code of Sharia rulings on personal status matters” within six months of the legislation being passed.

Campaigners fear the changes would lead to the legalising of unregistered marriages – with such unions routinely wielded to dodge child marriage laws, as well as eradicating punishment for adult men who marry children and the clerics who preside over the marriages.

Razaw Salihy, Amnesty International’s Iraq researcher, has called on lawmakers to listen to civil society and women’s rights groups warnings over the “devastating impact” the change in law would bring.

She warned the proposals “would eliminate the current legal marriage age of 18 for both girls and boys, paving the way for child marriages, as well as stripping women and girls of protections regarding divorce and inheritance”.

Ms Salihy added: “Not only does child marriage deprive girls of their education, but married girls are more vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, and health risks related to early pregnancy.”

It is “alarming” that the proposals are “being pushed so vehemently when completely different, urgent legal reforms are needed to protect Iraqi women and girls’ rights”, she warned.

Iraq’s parliament must reject these harmful proposed amendments and instead focus their efforts on addressing woeful shortcomings in the penal code

Razaw Salihy

Ms Salihy added: “Iraq’s parliament must reject these harmful proposed amendments and instead focus their efforts on addressing woeful shortcomings in the penal code, which permits ‘honour’ as a mitigating factor for the killings of women and girls and allows for the corporal punishment of the wife and children by the husband, as well as failing to criminalise marital rape.”

Campaigners say the measures would also get rid of key safeguards for divorced women, like the right to stay in the marital home or get financial support from an ex-husband.

After the first reading of the bill happened in early August, the second reading took place in mid-September amid warnings by women MPs and other critics that their own recommendations had been overlooked. Parliament is due to debate the proposals and then vote on them.

The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court last month concluded the amendments were allied with Iraq’s constitution.

UN experts have also voiced fears amendments to the law, which they say “would constitute a serious roll-back of rights in a number of key areas affecting women and children, particularly in areas such as marriage, divorce, and child custody”.

In a letter to the Iraqi government, they added it would “likely exacerbate the prevalence and forms of violence against Iraqi women and girls”.

Similar measures were put forward in the country back in 2014 and 2017 but did not get through due to sparking widespread backlash and condemnation.