By Zainab Al Mashat and Omar Al Jaffal – The Guardian
A draft law in Iraq that would allow the marriage of girls as young as nine has provoked protests across the country, with women’s rights activists saying it would “legalise child rape”.
The Shia religious groups that dominate the political system in Iraq have been pushing to erode women’s rights in the country for more than a decade.
Unlike neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Iraq does not have a system of male guardianship requiring women to have the permission of a husband, father or male guardian to make crucial life choices such as marriage.
However, a new proposal, which passed its first reading in the Iraqi parliament this week, would give religious authorities the power to decide on family affairs, including marriage, divorce and the care of children
“This is a catastrophe for women,” said Raya Faiq, who is the coordinator for a coalition of groups which are opposing the law change. The group includes some Iraqi MPs.
“My husband and my family oppose child marriage. But imagine if my daughter gets married and my daughter’s husband wants to marry off my granddaughter as a child. The new law would allow him to do so. I would not be allowed to object. This law legalises child rape.”
During protests organised by the coalition this week in the capital, Baghdad, and in several other cities in Iraq, supporters of the new law confronted opponents and accused them of “moral decadence” and “following western agendas”.
Although Iraq has outlawed marriage under the age of 18 since the 1950s, one survey by the UN children’s agency, Unicef, found that 28% of girls in Iraq had married before they reached the age of 18.
Since 2021, the Iraqi political system has been dominated by the Coordination Framework, a political coalition of Iran-aligned factions. They have passed several sharia-oriented laws, including one to adopt religious holidays and another criminalising gay and transgender people in Iraq.
“Following the mass youth protests which took place in Iraq in 2019, these political players saw that the role of women had begun to strengthen in society,” said Nadia Mahmood, co-founder of the Iraq-based Aman Women’s Alliance. “They felt that feminist, gender and women’s organisations, plus civil society and activist movements, posed a threat to their power and status … [and] began to restrict and suppress them.”
A bloc of 25 female MPs in parliament have been trying to stop the draft law being put to a second vote, but said they face strong opposition.
“Unfortunately, male MPs who support this law speak in a masculine way, asking what’s wrong with marrying a minor? Their thinking is narrow minded. They don’t take into consideration that they are the legislators that determine people’s fate … but rather follow their masculine thinking to authorise all this,” said Alia Nassif, an Iraqi MP.
Protesters said they feared their children would face a future even harsher than their own if the law changes were adopted. “I have one daughter, I don’t want her to be forced like me to marry as a child,” said Azhar Jassim, who had to leave school to be married aged 16.