A contentious draft law that is being considered in Iraq could open the door to girls as young as nine getting married and would require wives to submit to sex on their husband’s whim, provoking outrage from rights activists and many Iraqis who see it as a step backward for women’s rights.
The measure, targeted to creating different laws for Iraq’s majority Shiite population, could further worsen the country’s divisions amid some of the worst bloodshed since the sectarian war that almost ripped the country apart after the U.S.-led invasion. The law also comes as more and more children under 18 getting married in the country.
“That law represents a crime against humanity and childhood,” Hana Adwar, prominent Iraqi human rights activist told The Associated Press. “Married underage girls are subjected to physical and psychological suffering.”
Iraqi law now sets the legal age for marriage at 18 without parental approval. Girls as young as 15 can be married only with a guardian’s approval. The proposed new law, also known as the Jaafari Personal Status Law, is based on the principles o a Shiite school of religious law founded by Jaafar al-Sadiq, the sixth Shiite imam. Iraq’s Justice Ministry late last year introduced the draft measure to the Cabinet, which approved it last month despite strong opposition by rights groups and activists.
No minimum age for marriage is set on the Jaafari Personal Status Law, but it mentions an age in a section on divorce, setting rules for divorce girls who have reached the age of 9 years old in the lunar Islamic calendar. It also states that that is the age girls reach puberty. The bill makes the father the only parent with the right to accept or refuse the marriage proposal.
Critics believe that authors of he law slipped the age into the divorce section as a backhanded way to allow marriages of girls that young. Also under the proposed measure, a husband can have sex with his wife regardless of her consent and the bill also prevents women from leaving the house without their husband’s permission. All this would restrict women’s rights in matters of parental custody after divorce and make it easier for men to take multiple wives.
