Iraq: Proposed legal changes could see girls as young as nine forcibly married
Girls as young as nine could be forcibly married, and protections regarding divorce and inheritance potentially removed
Urgent legal reforms are needed to protect Iraqi women and girls’ rights and criminalise marital rape
‘Iraqi lawmakers must heed the warnings of civil society and women’s rights groups on the devastating impact of these amendments’ - Razaw Salihy
Ahead of an imminent parliamentary vote in Iraq on possible changes to the country’s Personal Status Law, Amnesty International is calling on Iraqi lawmakers to drop amendments that would violate women and girls’ rights, further entrench discrimination and could allow for girls as young as nine to be forced into marriage.
The current Personal Status Law applies to all Iraqis irrespective of their religion. The proposed amendments would grant religious councils of the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam in Iraq the authority to develop their own "code of Sharia rulings on personal status matters" within six months of the law being passed, effectively threatening women’s and girls’ rights and their equality before the law.
The amendments would also open the door to legalising unregistered marriages, which are often used to circumvent child marriage laws, and removing penalties for adult men who enter such marriages and clerics who conduct them. It would also remove critical protections for divorced women, such as the right to remain in the marital home or receive financial support from the former husband.
Razaw Salihy, Amnesty International’s Iraq researcher, said:
“Iraqi lawmakers must heed the warnings of civil society and women’s rights groups on the devastating impact of these amendments, which 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.
“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 these amendments to the Personal Status Law are being pushed so vehemently when completely different, urgent legal reforms are needed to protect Iraqi women and girls’ rights.
“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.”
Amnesty confirmed that the proposed amendments violate international treaties ratified by Iraq including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Opposition to the bill
The first reading of the bill took place on 4 August 2024. Similar amendments were proposed in 2014 and 2017 but failed to pass due to a nationwide outcry. On 3 September, Iraq’s parliament attempted to hold a second reading of the draft bill but opposing MPs had waged a boycott campaign that succeeded in blocking this. The bill’s second reading took place on 16 September, with women MPs and other opponents of the bill raising concerns that none of their recommendations had been taken into account, nor an amended draft shared. On 17 September, the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruled that the amendments were aligned with Iraq’s constitution.