A new law could effectively allow girls as young as nine years old to get married under Shia Islamic law, as it is allowed under certain interpretations.
A young veiled girl is looking on while standing next to her mother during a religious festival to commemorate Ashura, in Dolatabad neighborhood in southern Tehran, Iran, on July 16, 2024. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In 1959, Iraq became one of the first countries in the Middle East to set 18 as the minimum age for marriage.
Iraqi girl poses for a picture while others play on a trampoline at a mobile amusement park as they celebrate Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in the old city of Mosul, northern Iraq. (Photo by Ismael Adnan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
However, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, Iraq's parliament passed a new law that gives Islamic courts more power over family matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance.
Two veiled Iraqi women are standing together on a street side after participating in a religious festival to commemorate Ashura, in Dolatabad neighborhood in southern Tehran, Iran. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
This will allow religious leaders to make decisions regarding marriage based on their interpretation of Islamic law, according to AP.
An Iraqi girl poses in front of a mural painting on the first day of the school year at an elementary school in Baghdad on October 12, 2022. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)
Critics argue that the new law could effectively allow girls as young as nine years old to get married under Shia Islamic law, as it is allowed under certain interpretations.
Two Iraqi girls watch a carnival ride as families visit the vast Baghdad Island amusement park on the northern outskirts of the capital. (Photo by Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
According to the UN, 28% of Iraqi girls already get married before 18 due to a loophole that allowed religious leaders to conduct marriages for girls as young as 15 if the girl’s father consented.
A girl carries her school bag as she walks in the Nahr Bin Omar village, across from the eponymous oil field and facility in Iraq's southern Basra governorate, on December 5, 2021. (Photo by Hussein FALEH / AFP)
Supporters of the new law, mostly conservative Shia lawmakers, say it aligns with Islamic principles and rejects Western influence.
Women demonstrate near the Kadhimiya court in Iraq's capital Baghdad on November 21, 2021, in protest against the legalisation of a marriage contract for a 12-year-old girl. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)
Women's rights groups have condemned the new law, with many activists saying that it will "legalize child rape".
An Iraqi orphan girl waits to receive a present in the Yarmuk neighborhood in western Baghdad, 05 October 2007. (Photo by KHALID MOHAMED / POOL / AFP)A young veiled girl is looking on while standing next to her mother during a religious festival to commemorate Ashura, in Dolatabad neighborhood in southern Tehran, Iran, on July 16, 2024. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Isha Jain
Cherry Mohamed
