An amendment to Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status law was officially proposed in the Iraqi parliament on Aug. 4. The draft law could theoretically make it legal for girls as young as nine years old to get married.
The bill was proposed by Iraqi MP Ra’ad al-Maliki, and is supported by conservative Shi’ite factions within the government. Many civil society and women’s groups have mobilized against the law, protesting on the streets of Baghdad and other cities across the country.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The law would add the option of having matters of family law – such as marriage – adjudicated by religious authorities. “Civil courts that file marriage and divorce may become obsolete, and will no longer defend women’s rights to alimony, custody of children, or other rights,” said Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, according to the Middle East Eye.
The MP who proposed the bill, al-Maliki, has denied that it could lead to child marriage, saying that such implications are “lies fabricated by some out of hatred for applying the provisions of God’s law to those who want them,” per the Middle East Eye.
Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status law prohibits marriage for individuals under the age of 18. Exceptions can be made for women as young as 15 if they have permission from both a judge and the parents, according to Marsin Alshamary, a scholar of Middle Eastern politics and an assistant professor at Boston College.
Iraq’s 1959 law was heavily influenced by the Iraqi Women’s League and is one of the most progressive laws in the region, according to Nadje Al-Ali, a professor of anthropology and Middle East studies at Brown University.
“The reason it is perceived to be one of the most progressive laws of the time and even later on, is because it made it much more difficult for a man to marry a second, third, or fourth wife. He actually had to have the permission of the first wife,” Al-Ali tells TIME. “It also made divorce possible for women, it pushed the marriage age to 18, and very crucially, it was a unified set of laws that applied to both Shia and Sunni Muslims.”
In the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the U.S., there have been various attempts by Islamist factions in the country to repeal or change the law so that religious authorities can have more influence over family matters. In the past, attempts to repeal or dramatically alter the law have failed. However, Alshamary says that this time, things are different.
“This is the closest we’ve come to actually seeing this through, and if this happens it’s probably going to be one of the most impactful events in Iraq’s post-2003 history, with huge repercussions going forward,” she tells TIME.
The amendment would alter the 1959 law so that Muslim families could choose whether they want to get married under civil law or religious law. Currently, marriages and divorces must go through secular civil courts in order to be recognized by the government. If the amendment passes, Muslim families could choose to marry under secular law or religious law. Those who choose to marry under religious law must pick between Sunni or Shi’ite legal systems.
One school of Shi’ite Islamist thought, known as the Ja’fari school of Islam, is interpreted by some clerics as allowing for the marriage of girls as young as age nine. While some Shi’ite clerics disagree with this interpretation, some activists are concerned that the law could effectively legalize child marriage for Shi’ite Muslim girls. Shi’ite Muslims make up between 55-60% of Iraq’s population, according to the U.S. Department of State.
Even with the legal protections currently in place, child marriage remains prevalant in Iraq, with approximately 28% of girls marrying before the age of 18, according to a 2023 UNICEF report. Experts and activists are concerned that the proposed law will further erode the rights of women and children in the country.
“Just the possibility of [legalizing child marriage] is alarming enough, because we already see significant underage marriage in Iraq,” says Alshamary.
Experts say that this also has a risk of creating further division in a country that is still trying to heal from the sectarian divisions that were exacerbated in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion.
“This proposal takes away [power] from the state and gives it to the religious establishment,” says Nida Alahmad, a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh who specializes in politics and international relations of the Middle East. She worries that creating separate legal frameworks for Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims would further divide the country. “[It] makes the state fragmented and further institutionalized along sectarian groups.”
Before the amendment can be voted on, it must be debated in parliament, according to experts who spoke with TIME. After it has been debated, it can then be scheduled for a vote. A simple majority in parliament would mean that the amendment passes, and the bill could be enforced as law. As of now, an official debate has yet to be scheduled.
