Critics say new bill passed by Iraqi lawmakers opens door to child marriage

Iraq’s parliament passed three divisive laws on Tuesday, including amendments to the country’s personal status law that opponents say would effectively legalize child marriage.

The amendments give Islamic courts more authority over family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Activists argue that this undermines Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and established safeguards for women.

Iraqi law currently sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage in most cases.

The changes passed Tuesday allow clerics to rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law, which some interpret to allow girls to marry in their early teens — or as young as nine under the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq.

Advocates of the changes, which have been favored by mainly conservative Shia parliamentarians, defend them as a means to align the law with Islamic principles and reduce Western influence on Iraqi culture.

The parliament also passed a general amnesty law that is seen to benefit Sunni detainees and is also seen as giving people involved in corruption and embezzlement a leg up. The chamber also passed a land restitution law aimed at addressing Kurdish territorial claims.

“Disastrous effects” on women’s rights, women: activist

Intisar al-Mayali, a human rights activist and a member of the Iraqi Women’s League, said the passage of the amendments to the civil status law “will have disastrous effects on the rights of women and women, because of the marriage of girls at an early age, which violates their right to the life of children, and will disrupt the protection mechanisms for divorce, custody and inheritance of women”.

The session ended in chaos and accusations of procedural violations.

“Half of the parliamentarians present in the session did not vote, which broke the legal quorum,” a parliamentary official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. He said that some members protested strongly and others climbed on the parliamentary podium.

After the session, a number of legislators complained about the voting process, under which the three controversial laws – each of which was supported by different blocs – were voted together.

“As for the civil status law, we strongly support it and there were no problems with it,” said Raid al Maliki, an independent lawmaker.

The amendments could lead to legal appeal

“But it was combined with other laws to be voted together … and this could lead to a legal appeal to the Federal Court.”

Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani in a statement praised the passage of the laws as “an important step in the process of strengthening justice and organizing the daily life of citizens.”

Also on Tuesday, at least three officials, including the national security chief of al-Tarmiyah district north of Baghdad, were killed and four others wounded in an explosion at an ammunition depot, a security official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to inform the media, said that the explosion occurred as a joint force of the Iraqi army and the national security service carried out an operation following intelligence reports of the activities of the Islamic State group. ammunition cache in the area.