Young Iraqi girls who are still years away from becoming teenagers could be forced to marry if a new Shia-backed law is passed. The new rule lowers a girl’s consent age from 18 to 9.
This includes enabling parents to arrange marriages for their young daughters.
Iraq does not have a male guardianship system that compels a girl to obtain the consent of a husband, father, or other male guardian before making important life decisions such as marriage. The proposal would also empower religious authority to perform marriages.
According to the Guardian, women in parliament (MP) and activist groups are opposed to the proposed law, which is in its second stage of consideration by the legislative government.
“This is a catastrophe for women,” said Raya Faiq, coordinator of a coalition of groups opposing the law change that includes several Iraqi MPs.
“My husband and my family are against child marriage. But imagine if my daughter marries and her husband wishes to marry off my granddaughter as a child. The new law would enable him to do so. I would not be permitted to object. This legislation legalizes child rape.
The new law would reinstate the Taliban’s practice of reducing women’s rights.
Iraqi civilians have protested in the capital, Baghdad, as well as other cities across the country. Protesters have clashed with local police officers.
Although marriage under the age of 18 has been prohibited since the 1950s, a Unicef poll discovered that 28% of Iraqi females married before the age of 18.
According to Nadia Mahmood, co-founder of the Iraq-based Aman Women’s Alliance, a movement of young organizations and women poses a challenge to Iraq’s male-dominated parliament.
“Following the mass youth protests that occurred in Iraq in 2019, these political players saw that the role of women had begun to strengthen in society,” according to a Guardian story.
They perceived feminist, gender, and women’s organizations, as well as civil society and activist movements, as a threat to their power and status…” “[and] began to restrict and suppress them.”
There have been 25 female members of Iraq’s government who have attempted to prevent the proposed law from being put to a second vote, but they claim that strong opposition from their male MP colleagues has made it practically impossible.
“Unfortunately, men MPs who favor this measure speak in a manly manner, questioning what is wrong with marrying a juvenile. Their thinking is narrow-minded.
They fail to recognize their role as legislators in determining people’s fate. Alia Nassif, an Iraqi MP, stated that they would rather follow their masculine mindset to authorize all of this.
Protesters believe that if the proposed changes to the law are implemented, their children will face an even tougher future than they do.
“I have one daughter, and I don’t want her to be forced to marry as a child, as I was,” said Azhar Jassim, who had to leave school at 16 to marry.
