- The proposed amendments have sparked widespread demonstrations and debate between Iraqis who are pro-civil rights and religious institutions
BAGHDAD (Agencies): 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.