A conservative coalition forming the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament has pushed proposals to lower the legal age of marriage for girls to just nine years old, sparking backlash from activists and rights groups. The Mail has more.
Protesters demonstrated in Baghdad this week to express their outrage at changes that would allow aspects of personal status matters to be legislated by religious sects, rather than the courts.
With many Iraqi marriages conducted informally and left unregistered, the revisions would allow figures from Sunni and Shia religious sects to finalise unions between people in law.
But critics fear the Shia code would be based on “Jaafari jurisprudence”, allowing girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 to marry. Under current Iraqi law, both can marry from 18.
“The Iraqi community categorically rejects these proposals, it is a degrading step for both Iraqi men and women alike. This is what we have been fighting against for years,” women’s rights activist Suhalia Al Assam told the National this week.
The amendments to Law No. 188, the Personal Status Law of 1959 have been pushed by a coalition of conservative Shia Islamist parties, which form the largest bloc in parliament.
The Coordination Framework attempted to carry out a first reading on July 24th, but shelved the plans until last Sunday after meeting political resistance.
Many protesters gathered in Tahrir Square in the capital on Thursday to voice their opposition to the bill, which some said would foment further division in society.
The significance of nine years old for Muslims, of course, is that, according to authoritative Islamic tradition, Muhammad consummated his marriage to his child bride Aisha when she was that age. Increasingly it seems that a key question for ordinary Muslims is, can they stop the seventh century intruding so brutally on the 21st?
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