Iraq's parliament postponed a session scheduled for Tuesday to push ahead with controversial amendments to the nation’s Personal Status Law that, if passed, would allow for girls as young as nine to be married.
The proposed amendments, supported by Islamist parties in parliament, would give religious authorities a say in governing marriage and inheritance matters. They would also strip Iraqi women of many of their divorce and inheritance rights.
“We will not be part of a parliament session in which a law that legalises minors' marriage, strips the rights of the mothers and increases the sectarian divisions in the society to be passed,” legislator Noor Nafea Al Jilaihawi wrote on X.
She called on MPs “who believe in the importance of family and the necessity of preserving it not to attend the session in order not to pass the second reading”.
On August 4, the parliament completed the first reading of the bill, considered the initial step to accepting draft laws and starting the process. The second reading, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was meant to begin the debate on suggested bills and amendments. If the second reading is approved, the bill would then be eligible to be put to a vote in the third reading.
The session was supposed to start at 1pm, but later that afternoon Parliament announced a postponement until further notice amid calls to boycott the session by many parties.
Kurdish lawmaker Ala Talabani said the Parliament's "insistence on passing an amendment and not listening to opposition popular opinions, and not agreeing to hold any workshop or hearing within Parliament, to discuss the law, is clear evidence of the intentions of some parties in power to pass their partisan agendas and break the will of others".
"We reiterate once again another concern which is the disintegration of society and its sectarian division, and the violation of the provisions of the Constitution and Iraq’s international obligations regarding the rights of children and women," Mrs Talabani said in a statement.
Critics said the amendments would further cement sectarianism in Iraq as they allow couples to choose between the provisions of the Personal Status Law or the provisions of specific Islamic schools of jurisprudence. If a couple are from two different sects, the school followed by the husband’s sect would apply.
The proposed amendments have led to widespread demonstrations and debate between Iraqis who are pro-civil rights and religious institutions, which have gained more power over the past two decades.
In an opinion poll conducted by the Iraq Polling Team NGO this month, more than 73 per cent expressed “strong opposition” to the amendments to the current Personal Status Law that has been in place since 1959.
In contrast, only about 24 per cent of those surveyed expressed strong support for the changes while about 3 per cent remained indifferent.
On Monday, the EU mission in Iraq voiced concern over the proposed amendments to the law. In a statement on X, the mission said it was examining these and “reaching out to Iraqi interlocutors seeking their views”.
“We hope that the legislators will ensure the compatibility between the revised text and Iraq’s legal framework and international law obligations, including when it comes to ratified international conventions,” it said.