Iraqi draft bill that would allow child marriage as young as nine years old

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday decried an Iraqi draft law that would permit marriages of children as young as nine years old.

The draft, an amendment to Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, was officially brought before the Iraqi Parliament on August 4, 2023 by Ra’ad al-Maliki. It seeks to amend Article 7(1) of the Personal Status Law, which provides that the age for a valid marriage at 18 years.

During a protest organized by groups of women activists from various civil society organizations in the city of Erbil, the women urged the Iraqi Parliament to reject the controversial bill as it would undermine the rights of women and families. Additionally, under the current law, the amendment would disregard the requirement, to have marriages conducted in court partly to ensure genetic screening.

According to HRW, the code of Sharia (Islamic law) rulings on personal status matters that would come out of the amendment would remove democratic oversight and grant disproportionate power to religious authorities in setting the law, thereby denying both the public and members of parliament the opportunity to review or vote on the code before it becomes law.

HRW said the effects of the intended law would not only contradict the principle of equality under Article 14 of the Iraqi Constitution but also international laws such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on Rights of the Child, which the country has ratified.

HRW Iraq researcher Sarah Sanbar stated that the passage of this bill would be a “devastating step backwards” for the progress made in gender equality in Iraq, stripping the women of their legal protections and “hard-won rights.”

The Iraqi Parliament is set to have two more readings before deciding whether to vote the bill into law.

Women’s right is not the only right that is at risk in Iraq. In April, the Iraqi parliament passed a law that criminalizes same sex relationships and transgender individuals. The law garnered widespread criticism from international human rights groups.