Critics say a new bill passed by Iraqi lawmakers has opened the door to child marriage

Iraq’s parliament passed three divisive laws on Tuesday, including amendments to the country’s constitution that the opposition says would legalize child marriage.

The amendments give Islamic courts more jurisdiction in family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Activists say this undermines Iraq’s 1959 Human Status Act, which codified family law and established protections for women.

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

The changes passed on Tuesday will allow clerics to rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law, which some interpret to allow the marriage of girls as young as 12 – or as young as 9 years old under the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shia clerics in Iraq.

Proponents of the reforms, which were driven by ultra-conservative Shia lawmakers, defended them as a way to harmonize Islamic law and reduce Western influence on Iraqi culture.

The parliament also passed an amnesty law which is considered to benefit Sunni prisoners and which is also seen as giving passports to people involved in corruption and fraud. The chamber also passed a land restitution law aimed at addressing Kurdish territorial claims.

‘Disastrous consequences’ for women’s rights, girls: activist

Intisar al-Mayali, a human rights activist and member of the Iraqi Women’s League, said that the passage of the amendments to the social status law “will leave negative consequences for the rights of women and girls, by marrying girls at a young age, which violates their right to live as children, and will interfere with the means of protecting divorce, the right the last and the inheritance of women.”

The session ended in chaos and allegations of procedural violations.

“Part of the members of Parliament who were present at the meeting did not vote, which violated the number of lawyers,” said a member of Parliament who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to comment publicly. He said some members protested loudly and others climbed onto the platform of the Parliament.

After the meeting, several members of the legislature complained about the voting system, under which all three opposing laws – each supported by different parties – were voted on together.

“Regarding the civil status law, we strongly support it and there were no problems with that,” said Raid al Maliki, an independent member of parliament.

Amendments may lead to legal appeals

“But it was combined with other laws that have to be voted on together … and this could lead to an appeal to the Federal Court.”

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

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

The official, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to inform the media, said that the explosion happened when the Iraqi army joined forces with the national security forces to conduct an operation following intelligence reports on the activities of the Islamic State group and investigations. ammunition storage in the area.