Iraq set to amend marriage law, allowing men to marry 9-year-old girls

Iraq is on the verge of passing a new law that would permit men to marry young girls, by lowering the legal age of consent from 18 to 9, as per a recent report. The Shia conservative dominated Iraq's parliament has proposed an amendment to the country's "personal status law," which could lead to a major setback of women's rights, much like the policies seen under Taliban.

Critics argued that this law would strip women of all decisions.

Raya Faiq, who is challenging the bill with Iraqi representatives, said that this law would allow young girls to be married off early and transfers almost all family decisions in the hands of religious authorities.

“This is a catastrophe for women,” Faiq told The Guardian, adding that this law would legalize child rape.

Decades of sectarian conflict have resulted in a government dominated by the Shia Muslim religious majority, which has also attempted to amend the personal status law twice before. However, both efforts were greeted with strong opposition from Iraqi women, as per the New York Post.

However, with religious groups holding a strong majority in Parliament at present, Faiq and 25 female representatives face a tough challenge in blocking a second vote that could approve the bill.

“Unfortunately, male MPs who support this law speak in a masculine way, asking, ‘What’s wrong with marrying a minor?’ Their thinking is narrow minded,” an Iraqi representative said.

In case the law passes, it would also remove women’s rights to divorce, child custody and inheritance. The Shia coalition has consistently argued that the law aims to protect girls from what they describe as "immoral relationships."

Opponents of the law and human rights groups, however, have condemned the bill as an effort to undermine women's rights in the country, especially after recent protests led by young women against the strict government.


They argue that the bill puts young girls at greater risk of sexual and physical violence, and could also make it easier for them to be taken out of school, depriving them of an education.

Even though child marriages have been long banned in the 1950s, a 2023 United Nations survey found that around 28 per cent of girls in Iraq were married before turning 18.