Iraq News Now

Shafaq News/ Women's and children'srights advocates in Iraq are fiercely challenging proposals that threaten toembed sectarianism in family relationships, increase clerical control overfamily matters, and potentially legalize child marriages for girls as young asnine, according to a report by Middle East Eye.

The report stated that “theamendments to Law No. 188 of the Personal Status Law of 1959 have been heavilypromoted by the Coordination Framework, a coalition of conservative ShiaIslamist parties that form the largest bloc in parliament.”

The first reading took place onSunday, following a failed attempt on 24 July that was shelved after someparties objected.

It is only the latest attempt tobring forward amendments to the law, with previous ones being shelved afterpolitical outcry.

According to the draft bill, whenconcluding a marriage contract, a Muslim couple are required to choose eitherthe Sunni or Shia sect to represent in "all matters of personal status".

"When a disputeoccurs between the spouses regarding the doctrine according to whose provisionsthe marriage contract was concluded, the contract is deemed to have beenconcluded in accordance with the husband’s doctrine unless evidence exists tothe contrary," reads the draft, which was circulated by a number of Iraqipoliticians on social media.

It would also allow figures from"the offices of the Shiite and Sunni endowments" to finalizemarriages rather than the courts.

The draft requires Shia and Sunniendowments to submit a "code of legal rulings" to the parliament sixmonths after ratifying the amendments, stipulating the Shia code would be basedon "Jaafari jurisprudence".

Although the question of childmarriage is not directly addressed in the amendments, previous versions of thebill have been more explicit and legal experts have warned that it could beallowed based on Jaafari jurisprudence.

The report revealed that “many Iraqimarriages are unregistered and conducted by religious figures, making themillegal under the current Iraqi Personal Status Law.”

The proposed amendments could seethose marriages -22 percent of which, according to the UN, involve girls under 14 -legitimised by the state.

However, last week the CoordinationFramework insisted the amendments would come before the parliament, saying theywere constitutional and did "not contradict the constants of Sharia andthe foundations of democracy".

Ra’ad al-Maliki, the MP who proposedthe bill, has also hit back at claims the bill would lower the age minimum formarriage, calling them "lies fabricated by some out of hatred for applyingthe provisions of God’s law to those who want them".

'No to the marriage of minors'

Women's rights organisations havepublicly demonstrated against the bill.

On 28 July, a group of activists -including campaigners from the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) -gathered in Baghdad's Tahrir Square in opposition to the bill.

They held placards reading "theera of female slaves is over" and "No to the marriage ofminors".

Yanar Mohammed, president of OWFI,told Middle East Eye that the Coordination Framework were trying to push the"archaic" laws as a means of distracting from their own failings,including "huge corruption".

"Their most efficient tool forthis distraction is to terrorise Iraqi women and civil society with alegislation that strips away all the rights that Iraqi women gained in moderntimes, and force archaic Islamic sharia on them that regards women as bodiesfor pleasure and breeding, and not as human being[s] with human rights,"she said.

She added that OWFI and others werebuilding a "coalition" to try and prevent the bill from passingthrough the parliament and defend the current law.

A number of Iraqi female lawmakers,including members from different factions, have meanwhile formed a coalition inopposition to the amendments of the Personal Status Law.

"The group wants to make itclear to everyone that the rejection is not based on emotions or externalmotives, but on legal, religious, professional, and social considerations andpeople who are concerned about protecting the order of the Iraqi family,"Iraqi MP Noor Nafea al-Julihawi was quoted as saying by the Kurdistan24 newssite.

'Profoundly negative impact'

The 1959 law was passed under thegovernment of Abdul-Karim Qasim, a leftist nationalist who brought in a numberof progressive reforms, including increased rights for women.

'[The proposed changes] wouldfurther entrench gender inequality and put vulnerable individuals at greaterrisk'

- Tamara Amir, CEO, Iraqi Women'sRights Platform

Since the 2003 US-led invasion ofIraq, however, rightwing political parties in the country have attempted toroll back these rights.

Previous versions of the bill haveincluded rules preventing Muslim men from marrying non-Muslims, thelegalisation of marital rape, and banning women from leaving the house withouttheir husband's permission.

The latest version is considerablyless explicit, but campaigners fear its passage will allow religiousauthorities to introduced the rules through their establishment of the PersonalStatus code.

"These proposed changes to thePersonal Status law would have a profoundly negative impact on the rights andwellbeing of women and children in Iraq," said Tamara Amir, CEO of theIraqi Women's Rights Platform.

She told MEE that unlike previousattempts at passing the reforms, she believed that the current government - ledby Coordination Framework member Mohammed Shia al-Sudani - would manage to getit passed, despite Iraqi society being "divided" on the issue.

"They would further entrenchgender inequality and put vulnerable individuals at greater risk," shesaid.

"We urge policymakers to rejectthese proposals and instead focus on strengthening protections for women andchildren."