Iraqi authorities may change the legislation on early marriage, voting in favor of an amendment that would lower the age of consent for girls from 18 to 9 years. About it UNN writes with reference to Fox News.
Details
The amendment was initiated by representatives of ultraconservative Muslim parties. It would repeal the Personal Status Act of 1959, which allows marriage from the age of 18.
Under the new bill, the age of consent will drop from 18 to 9 for girls and 15 for boys. This includes allowing parents to perform arranged marriages for their young daughters. The law will also allow religious authorities to conduct marriages.
Women will also lose their rights to divorce, inheritance and child custody.
Attempts to repeal the personal status law in Iraq have been made before, in 2014 and 2017, but they failed. Now some human rights activists worry that it has a chance of success this time.
And although marriage before the age of 18 has been banned since the 1950s, a UNICEF study found that 28% of girls in Iraq were married before the age of 18. According to Human Rights Watch, child marriages have increased in Iraq over the past 20 years. Such unions are arranged informally by religious leaders.
Recall
The Iraqi parliament passed a law penalizing same-sex relationships with 10 to 15 years imprisonment, homosexual propaganda with 7 years imprisonment, and transgenderism with 1 to 3 years imprisonment.