In Iraq, a proposed law, defended by a coalition of Shiite Muslim parties, aims to radically modify legislation relating to personal status, lowering the legal age of consent from 18 to 9 years. These changes would allow child marriages, a prospect denounced by human rights defenders who accuse the government of wanting legalize child rape “, and would also affect other fundamental rights of women, such as the right to divorce, child custody and inheritance. The conservative movements behind the project believe that this reform, which is part of a strict interpretation of sharia, would protect young girls from “ immoral relationships ”, as reported The Telegraph.
The initiative, however, has sparked strong protests from women's rights activists and Middle East experts. “ The amendment would not only violate all their rights, it would erase them », denounced Sarah Sanbar of Human Rights Watch to the British newspaper. Renad Mansour, a researcher at Chatham House, also pointed out between these columns that reform is “ strategic » for the Shiite parties, wishing to strengthen their ascendancy by emphasizing their religious legitimacy, already weakened in recent years.
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“Cancelling the principle of equality before the law”
Protests organized by Coalition 188, an Iraqi feminist group, took place to denounce the project. Athraa Al-Hassan, an influential feminist voice, expressed The Telegraph in « fear » to see the Iraqi judicial system replaced by a model inspired by the tutelage of the jurist, a Shiite legal framework granting the religious council a “ absolute power “. This model, already in force in Iran, could dismantle the civil rights acquired by Iraqi women and expose young girls to increased violence and exploitation.
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In addition, this law could exacerbate sectarian divisions in Iraq, a country already marked by internal conflicts since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The proposed amendments give Muslims the choice between current secular law and religious law specific to their belief, but in the event of a family dispute, it is the law of the husband's religion which will prevail, ” annulling the principle of equality before the law “, as explained by Sarah Sanbar.
« The Iraqi Parliament must reject these dangerous changes and instead work to address the woeful flaws in the Penal Code, which allows 'honor' to be invoked as a mitigating factor in cases of murder of women and girls, permits corporal punishment of the husband on his wife and children, and does not punish marital rape », Called Amnesty International in a press release.
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