Between war and red tape, many Iraqis lack official papers
Married for over a decade, Alia AbdelRazak is one of a million Iraqis deprived of crucial civil status documents, often caught in legal limbo in a country paralysed by bureaucracy and the ravages of war.
The 37-year-old has to overcome countless hurdles just to get her children into school, and she cannot register her family to obtain the food subsidies she and her husband so desperately need.
A mother of four, Abdel-Razak relies on a pro-bono lawyer from aid group the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to help her navigate the labyrinthine processes required to get her papers in order. Like many others, she struggles with endless red tape-but also the fallout from the country's gruelling battle to defeat the Islamic State group-to obtain documents like marriage and birth certificates.
"I don't have the means, lawyers want $300500. Where can I get this money when I don't even have enough to eat?" she told AFP. Her dilapidated Mosul apartment bears witness to her daily struggle, with its bare concrete floors and broken windows patched up with cardboard.
She was married in 2012 and gave birth to her first daughter a year later.
But in 2014, IS seized Mosul and declared the capital of its "caliphate", driving out local officials in favour of their own administration.
The absence of civil status documents obstructs access to basic services such as "education, healthcare, and social security benefits", according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. It can also "lead to restricted freedom of movement, increased risk of arrest and detention", the agency says. Abdel-Razak's lawyer has launched a legal process to have her marriage and children officially recognised, with a decision expected in January.
In the meantime, they have scored one small victory-at nearly 10 years old, her firstborn Nazek has just joined school for the first time. But to obtain some of the documents requested by the judge, it took three visits just to get the intelligence services' seal on some papers.
One major hurdle has been the fact that her jailed brother is accused of having ties with IS.
According to the UN, one million Iraqis are living with at least one missing civil status document in a country still struggling to recover five years on from IS' defeat back in 2017.
Marriage contracts agreed under the militant group's rule have yet to be recognised, along with the children born out of these unions.
On top of that, many of the civil bureaus that kept such documentation on record were destroyed when IS rose to power or in the years-long battle to drive the militants out, according to the spokesman for the Ministry of Migration and Displaced Persons.
In cooperation with the interior ministry, his ministry coordinates mobile missions in camps to allow displaced people to obtain their missing documents, Ali Jahangir said.
IRC communications coordinator, Jordan Lesser-Roy, pointed to the work of non-governmental organisations in raising awareness among state bodies and reducing the waiting time for such paperwork.
"You need mayoral approval for these processes... and then of course you need policy change," she said, calling for budget increases to the Civil Affairs Directorate and for more "mobile missions". In a report published in September, aid groups including the IRC pointed to the added complexities faced by families "with perceived ISIS affiliation".