Shocker! Iraqi Parliament passes bill that allow marrying girls as young as...

Iraq has given a big shocker as its parliament passed three laws on Tuesday one of which may legalise child marriage. The parliament will make amendments in the nation’s personal status laws that, opponents believe, would bring back child marriage.  

These amendments in personal laws give Islamic courts more authority over personal matters like family, marriage, divorce and inheritance. According to activists, the current amendments sabotage Iraq's 1959 Personal Status Law under which family law was unified and women were provided more safeguards.  

According to the current law, 18 is the minimum age of marriage. The changes approved on Tuesday would allow clerics to enforce their interpretation of Islamic law, potentially permitting the marriage of girls as young as 9 or 13, in accordance with the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shia authorities in Iraq. The amendments were mostly advocated by Shiite conservatives who supported these changes for the purpose of aligning the law with Islamic principles and lessen the impact of foreign cultures on Iraq.  

Anonymous parliamentary official said, “Half of the lawmakers present in the session did not vote, which broke the legal quorum.” He also said that some members objected boldly, and others climbed onto the parliamentary podium. 

Several lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction with the voting process after the session, specifically regarding the bundling of three contentious laws, each backed by different factions, into a single vote. “Regarding the civil status law, we are strongly supporting it and there were no issues with that. But it was combined with other laws to be voted on together...and this might lead to a legal appeal at the Federal Court,” said Raid al Maliki, an independent MP 

The three controversial laws 

One of the three laws passed by the parliament was The general amnesty law is perceived as favoring Sunni detainees and also as pardoning individuals implicated in corruption and embezzlement. The second law was a land restitution law which meant for Kurdish territorial claims. 

Human rights activist and a member of the Iraqi Women's League, Intisar al-Mayali, was of the view that implementing the civil status law amendments "will leave disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls, through the marriage of girls at an early age, which violates their right to life as children, and will disrupt the protection mechanisms for divorce, custody and inheritance for women."  

The session was full of chaos and allegations of procedural violations.