Iraqi politicians agree to bring marriage age up to 15 under family law change

Previous proposal would have allowed girls as young as nine to be married

A schoolgirl in Baghdad passes a banner promoting a draft personal status law based on the Jaafari school of Shiite jurisprudence. AP

Politicians behind the controversial amendments to Iraq’s Personal Status Law, under which girls as young as nine would be able to marry, have agreed to bring the legal age of marriage up to 15, one of its key supporters in the parliament has told The National.

The new proposed age limit would still lower it from the current 1959 Personal Status Law which sets the legal age of marriage at 18 for boys and girls, and allows marriage at 15 but under strict conditions including the approval of a judge and guardians.

“There will be a provision to set the minimum marriage age in advance before the issuance of the code of Sharia,” said MP Raid Al Maliki, who sits in the parliament’s legal committee. “Therefore, any future code that is issued will not mention the marriage age,” Mr Al Maliki told The National.

“The current general opinion now is to go with the minimum age in the existing law, which is 15, allowing conditional marriage at age 14 only if the judge deems it necessary,” he said.

The move is seen as a partial retraction, possibly as a result of growing public anger and widespread contention by activists and lawmakers to the proposed changes, which would also give religious authorities control over family matters and curtail women's rights in divorce and inheritance cases, rolling back decades of hard-won rights for women and girls.

The provisions in the current law on child custody following a couple's divorce will also be amended based on recommendations to be sent from the Supreme Judicial Council, Mr Al Maliki added.

The duration of a mother's custody of her child is 10 years in the current law, and the court may decide to extend it for one or two years, or until the child reaches 15 years of age. During this time, the father has the right to see the child for only two hours every two weeks inside a court or a police station. The child has the right to choose their custodian when this period ends.

“It is likely to reduce the duration to at least seven years with the mother, that could be extended to 10, and the father can see the child for two days per week in addition to adding provisions for joint custody,” he said.

In early August, parliament completed the first reading of the bill, considered the first step to enacting draft laws. The bill's supporters pushed for the second reading in mid-September, which is meant to begin the debate on suggested changes. When a final version is agreed upon, it will be put to a vote at a third reading.

The amendments stipulate that the Scientific Council in the Scholar Council of the Shiite Endowment Office and the Scientific and Fatwa Council of the Sunni Endowment Office will each draw up a “code of Sharia [Islamic law] rulings on personal status matters” and submit it to the parliament within six months from the date of entry into force of the law.

Sunni political parties have informed Shiite parties that they will not submit their own code of Sharia and will adhere to the current law, Mr Al Malik added. “This is their right and we are waiting on all Sunni lawmakers to agree on that so we can remove it [Sunni code of Sharia] from the proposed amendments,” he said.

Since the 2003 US-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein's regime and enhanced the powers of both Shiite and Sunni religious institutions, Shiite political leaders have tried and failed several times to pass their own Personal Status Law based on the principles of a Shiite religious school founded by Jaafar Al Sadiq, the sixth Shiite imam. But since the start of this year and as their influence inside parliament has grown – they hold at least 130 seats in the 329-seat legislative body – they have started pushing for the amendments.

Although the amendments would allow couples to choose whether to be subject to the provisions of the current 1959 Personal Status Law or to the provisions of specific Islamic schools of jurisprudence, Mr Al Malik argues that it would not lead to the establishment of Shiite courts, as was the case in Iraq until 1958. “The judge will look into the code of Sharia when dealing with the case and there will be no Islamic courts at all,” he said.

The new changes, if passed, will not apply to marriages conducted by clerics but not registered in the court before the passing of the amendments. “From the beginning, we stated that we would address all comments, suggestions and objections that come our way if they are objective and identify an issue in implementation and resolve them,” Mr Al Malik added, saying that following the second reading “things are starting to move in a more objective direction”. It is not clear yet when the final version of these amendments will be put forward for a vote inside the Iraqi parliament.