Outrage as nine-year-old girls can marry in Iraq

New legislation allowing girls as young as nine to be married in Iraq is a “grievous violation” of children’s rights and “perpetuates a cycle of oppression” against women in the country, an Open Doors source says.

New amendments to Iraq’s Personal Law, passed by an alliance of Shia Muslim parties, legislate that Islamic courts now have jurisdiction over family matters. This includes marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance, scrapping safeguards which have protected women and girls in the Middle Eastern country since the original law’s passing in 1959, and making it home to the lowest age of consent in the world.

The legal age of consent for marriage in the Middle Eastern country remains at 18 in most cases, but clerics in Islamic courts may now adjudicate according to their own interpretation of Islamic law, meaning girls as young as nine could be forced to marry much older men, with no right to divorce, child custody or inheritance then or when they grow older.

Ben Cohen, Head of Media and PR for Open Doors UK and Ireland said of the legislation: "This law is a grievous violation of children's rights. It not only endangers the physical and emotional well-being of young girls but also perpetuates a cycle of oppression against women in Iraq, [and] these girls will effectively grow up without a proper education.

“It is part of a wider picture of systemic discrimination, where religious minorities, including Christians, face ongoing persecution and marginalisation. Christian women, already vulnerable to targeted violence and societal exclusion, will be further imperilled by this regressive legislation. We call upon the international community to condemn this act and stand in solidarity with all Iraqi women and girls."