Unregistered marriages are already a loophole enabling child marriage in Iraq, where child marriage rates have been rising over the last 20 years, a March 2024 report by Human Rights Watch found.

Protesters in Baghdad's Tahrir Square demonstrating against a proposed law that critics said would legalize child marriage in Iraq on August 8, 2024.

The potential consequences of child marriage were laid bare in a 2016 report by the United Nations Population Fund on the effects of child marriage in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, which ...

IRBIL, Iraq — Shaimaa Saadoun is haunted by her memory of being forced into an abusive marriage to a 39-year-old man just after she turned 13. Her impoverished family near the southern Iraqi ...

Iraq’s parliament passed three divisive laws Tuesday, including amendments to the country’s personal status law that opponents say would in effect legalize child marriage.

Although Iraq outlawed child marriages in the 1950s, a United Nations 2023 survey found that about 28% of girls in the country had married before their 18th birthday. Filed under.

She warned the proposals “would eliminate the current legal marriage age of 18 for both girls and boys, paving the way for child marriages, as well as stripping women and girls of protections ...

IRAQ has effectively legalised child marriage, with girls as young as nine being able to marry after amendments to decades old laws. The change on Tuesday has increased the interpretation of Islami… ...

Although marriage under the age of 18 has been a national law since the 1950s, a survey by Unicef found that 28% of girls in Iraq got married before they turned 18.

Why It Matters. Opponents to the amendments say they effectively legalize child marriage in Iraq and mark a significant step backward for women's rights in the country.

Changes to Iraq’s Personal Status Law could allow girls as young as nine to get married. Iraq could allow marriage for girls as young as 9. A survivor says it will fuel rape and child abuse.

Iraq’s parliament passed three divisive laws Tuesday, including amendments to the country’s personal status law that opponents say would in effect legalize child marriage.