Iraq’s parliament is working on a reform of the Personal Status Law through an amendment that would allow the country’s religious authorities to control marital affairs.
This modification could reduce the fundamental rights of Iraqi women, such as custody of their children and the possibility of divorce. According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, this change in the law could facilitate child marriage from the age of nine.
The bill presented in parliament gives religious leaders the power to draw up their own “sharia code of decisions on personal status issues” within six months of the law’s approval. For non-governmental organizations, this measure represents a direct threat to the human rights of women, especially girls.
The first reading of this reform was consolidated on August 4, 2024 and the second, after a boycott campaign carried out by the opposition, took place on September 16. Despite complaints from activists and human rights organizations, Iraq’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of the proposed amendments, stating that they “conformed to the country’s constitution.” The final vote still does not have an exact date for its execution.
This is not the first time that the Iraqi regime has tried to change the law on the status; It previously tried with similar amendments in 2014 and 2017, but these proposals were stopped due to opposition and pressure from women and activists in the country.
Although the Iraqi government maintains that this reform protects women and girls from falling into “immoral relationships,” Non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch explain that, if approved, it would undermine the principle of equality and expose minors to a greater risk of sexual and physical violence, as well as a growth in the gap in access to education and employment. .
The reform was presented by Raad al-Maliki, an independent member of parliament who also presented the amendment to the law on combating the “promotion of homosexuality” that punishes same-sex relations with up to 15 years in prison, approved in April of the current year.
Currently, the majority coalition is made up of conservative Shiite Muslim parties and has ample opportunity to carry out the alterations to the statute. Deputy Hassan Salem Abbas Jabr celebrated that “after trusting in God and the victory of Islamic law” it will be possible to “preserve the Iraqi family.”
In Iraq, 28% of women marry before turning 18: UNICEF
According to figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 28% of Iraqi women marry before turning 18 years of age, something that is possible thanks to a loophole in the current law that grants religious leaders the power to enact marriages with teenagers if they have the father’s permission.
For this reason, the NGO Amnesty International points out that this bill would increase the legalization of unregistered marriages with minors and, at the same time, reduce the security, dignity and rights of women and girls.
For its part, Human Rights Watch maintains that these types of reforms violate the International Covenant on Civil Rights because they limit substantial rights of women based on their religion and nullify decades of hard-won guarantees; If the green light is given, the NGO predicts that “current and future generations of Iraqi women will continue to be strangled by an oppressive patriarchal legal system.”
Both organizations point out that this amendment deprives fundamental rights on gender issues; the same way, They support that it puts girls at risk of forced and early marriages and leaves them vulnerable to sexual abuse. Therefore, they urge legislators to abandon these amendments to the Iraqi Personal Status Law.
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