Amendment of Personal Rights Law in Iraq; Continued Criticism of Child Marriage Facilitation

The Iraqi parliament amended the 'Personal Rights' law following protests against the facilitation of child marriage. According to this amendment, the minimum marriage age for girls is set at 18 years, which can be reduced to 15 years under special conditions with parental and judicial approval. However, these reforms continue to face criticism from women's rights activists. In response to objections to the text of the new 'Personal Rights' law, the Iraqi parliament on Tuesday, January 22, amended the law. Protesters were concerned that the original text of this law would severely limit women's rights and facilitate child marriage. The new amendment to the 'Personal Rights' law, which dates back to 1959, allows citizens to choose between civil laws or Sharia law for family matters, including marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. According to the new amendment, couples can follow Sharia laws as interpreted by Shia or Sunni scholars, and legal experts and religious authorities have been given four months to announce their preferred regulations in this area. Amnesty International warned in October that the proposed law could undermine the protection of women's and girls' rights in family matters such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. In Iran, alongside the increasing emphasis on policies encouraging marriage and raising birth rates, which is stressed by Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, there have been targeted efforts in recent years to lower the marriage age for girls and encourage families to facilitate their daughters' marriages. Meanwhile, some attempts in recent years to reform laws related to child marriage in Iran have been met with opposition from the government and especially from religious authorities. Additionally, a new general amnesty law, which was also passed in parliament on Tuesday, has led to disputes among political coalitions. This law guarantees requests for appeals and retrials for perpetrators of certain crimes. In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death sentences for hundreds of individuals for participating in 'terrorism.' However, human rights groups say that in most of these trials, judicial standards and the rights of the accused have not been respected, and courts have accepted confessions obtained under torture as legal evidence.