Iraq has passed a new law to lower the age of consent to 9. (Image: Getty)
Iraq’s parliament passed a law on Tuesday that critics say would effectively legalise child marriage with girls as young as nine.
The amendments give Islamic courts increased authority over family matters, including marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Activists argue this undermines Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and established safeguards for women.
Intisar al-Mayali, a human rights activist and a member of the Iraqi Women’s League, warned of the law’s “disastrous” consequences for Iraqi women and girls.
She said: “[It] will leave disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls, through the marriage of girls at an early age, which violates their right to life as children, and will disrupt the protection mechanisms for divorce, custody and inheritance for women.”
The law currently sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage in most cases. The changes would let clerics rule depending on their interpretation of Islamic law, which some say allows child marriage of girls in their early teens.
Lawmakers said the new rules would align with Islamic principles. (Image: Getty)
In some cases under the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq, girls as young as nine could be married off.
These Shiite authorities were at the forefront of this law change and argued it would align with Islamic principles and reduce Western influences on Iraq.
Raid al Maliki, an independent Iraqi MP, voiced his full support for the law, but noted it might face scrutiny after the fact.
He said: “Regarding the civil status law, we are strongly supporting it and there were no issues with that. But it was combined with other laws to be voted on together … and this might lead to a legal appeal at the Federal Court.”
Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani added that the law is “an important step in the process of enhancing justice and organizing the daily lives of citizens”.
The Iraqi parliament also passed a general amnesty law that could benefit Sunni detainees and give a pass to people involved in corruption and embezzlement, it has been argued.
It also passed a law aimed at addressing Kurdish territorial claims, with the session ending in chaos according to an anonymous parliamentary official.
The official told AP News that “half of the lawmakers present in the session did not vote, which broke the legal quorum”, while others loudly protested and climbed onto the podium.
