In a disheartening turn of events, the recent amendment to Iraq’s Personal Status Law, effective from February 17, 2025, threatens women’s and girls’ rights by creating legal inequalities that leave them vulnerable to abuse. Despite the efforts of women’s rights groups, the revision has retained harmful provisions surrounding marriage, child custody, and polygamy that compromise the rights of females in the country.
The new law permits couples to select between adhering to the outdated 1959 Personal Status Law or a new Personal Status Code (mudawana) dictated by the Shia Ja’afari school of Islamic jurisprudence, establishing separate legal frameworks that favour certain religious sects. This system fundamentally violates the principle of legal equality guaranteed by Iraq’s constitution and international law.
Sarah Sanbar from Human Rights Watch encapsulated the sentiment, lamenting the regression in women’s rights, stating, “Though the final text includes important revisions…these changes merely take the law from terrible to just plain bad.”
While the minimum marriage age remains at 18—15 with judicial permissions—the amendment undermines international standards. UNICEF highlights that 28% of Iraqi girls marry before 18, with consequent risks including violence and obstructed access to education.
Provisions for polygamy remain unchanged, requiring judicial consent but nonetheless perpetuating inequalities. The custody laws vaguely state the mudawana must align with children’s best interests, yet judges previously prioritised the husband’s choices, further restricting women’s rights in family matters.
The amended law includes disturbing concepts, such as legalising unregistered marriages, which create pathways to child marriage. Women’s rights advocates express concerns that such measures will exacerbate exploitation through temporary marriages orchestrated by clerics. These arrangements violate the rights of women, leaving them with little security or recourse.
The timeline set for the Ja’afari school to draft the mudawana, together with the absence of public review, strips lawmakers of their authority and empowers religious leaders unduly in matters that should consider all Iraqis equally. The negative implications of this legislative shift are pervasive, likely ingraining societal inequalities that impede the rights and autonomy of women and girls.
Ultimately, the amendment contravenes international conventions on gender discrimination and child rights, reaffirming a gender-biased legal framework. The broader ramifications of this amendment are dire, potentially altering Iraqi society profoundly at the expense of women’s independence and liberties.
“It’s deeply disheartening to see Iraqi leaders move the country backward rather than forward on women and girls’ rights,” Sanbar commented, highlighting the amendment’s potential to reconfigure societal norms, typically unfavourable to women’s empowerment and decision-making abilities.
The amendment to Iraq’s Personal Status Law, effective from February 17, 2025, poses risks to women’s rights by creating unequal legal frameworks based on religious sects. Despite some retention of positive provisions like minimum marriage age, the law still permits polygamy and legalises unregistered marriages, threatening women’s safety and autonomy. Advocacy efforts have mitigated some harms; however, the overall implications of the law could substantially hinder women’s rights in Iraq.
In conclusion, the recent amendments to Iraq’s Personal Status Law represent a significant step backward for women’s rights, enshrining inequalities and enabling further abuses. The amendment’s persistence on harmful practices like child marriage and polygamy, combined with the separation of legal systems based on religion, poses a severe threat to the legal equality of all Iraqi women and girls. This situation calls for urgent advocacy and action to protect and uphold the rights of women in Iraq.
Original Source: www.hrw.org
