Bid to legalize child marriage causes uproar
BAGHDAD — A contentious draft law being considered in Iraq could let girls as young as nine get married and would require wives to submit to sex at the whim of their husbands.
Rights activists and many Iraqis are outraged, calling it a step backward for women’s rights.
The measure, aimed at creating different laws for Iraq’s majority Shiite population, could further fray the country’s divisions amid some of the worst bloodshed since the period after the U. S.- led invasion. It also comes as more and more Iraqi children under 18 marry.
“That law represents a crime against humanity and childhood,” prominent Iraqi human rights activist Hana Adwar said in an interview. “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 measure, known as the Jaafari Personal Status Law, is based on the principles of 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 in February, despite strong opposition by rights groups and activists.
The draft law doesn’t set a minimum age for marriage. Instead, it mentions an age in a section on divorce, setting rules for divorces of girls who have reached the age of nine years in the lunar Islamic calendar. It also says that’s the age girls reach puberty. Since the Islamic calendar year is 10 or 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar, that would be the equivalent of eight years and eight months old.
The bill would make the father the only parent with the right to accept or refuse the marriage proposal.
Critics of the bill believe that its authors slipped the age into the divorce section as a backhanded way to allow marriages of girls that young.
Already, nearly 25 per cent of marriages in Iraq involved someone under the age of 18 in 2011, up from 21 per cent in 2001 and 15 per cent in 1997, government statistics show. Underage marriage is particularly prevalent in rural areas and some provinces where illiteracy is high, Planning Ministry spokesman Abdul- Zahra Hendawi said.
Also under the proposed measure, a husband could have sex with his wife regardless of her consent. The bill would also prevent women from leaving the house without their husband’s permission, would restrict women’s rights in matters of parental custody after divorce and make it easier for men to take multiple wives.
Parliament must still ratify the bill before it becomes law. That is unlikely to happen before parliamentary elections scheduled for April 30, though the cabinet support suggests it remains a priority for Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki’s administration.
Baghdad- based analyst Hadi Jalo suggested that election campaigning might be behind the proposal.
The formerly repressed Shiite majority came to power after the 2003 U. S.led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein’s Sunni- led regime.
Iraqi Justice Minister Hassan alShimmari, a Shiite, has brushed off criticism of the bill. His office introduced a companion bill that calls for the establishment of special Shiite courts that would be tied to the sect’s religious leadership.
Al- Shimmari insists the bill is designed to end injustices faced by Iraqi women in past decades, and that it could help prevent illicit child marriage outside established legal systems.
But Sunni female lawmaker Likaa Wardi says it violates women’s and children’s rights and creates divisions in society.
New York- based Human Rights Watch also strongly criticized the law this week.