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What should nine-year-old girls be doing?
The vast majority of people in the world would answer this question the same way: nine-year-old girls should be playing with friends, reading books, going to school…
No one with any sense of decency would say, “getting married,” but that’s exactly what a group of lawmakers in Iraq want to see happen.
Some members of the Iraqi parliament are pushing forward an amendment that could legalize child marriage for girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15. The amendment would allow couples to choose whether religious law or the country’s Personal Status Law will govern their matters of marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance.
The politicians’ move to legalize child rape – because, let’s be frank, that’s what’s behind the euphemism “child marriage” – is sickening. But it’s not the only problem with the proposed amendments.
The changes would also undermine the principle of equality before the law by allowing religion, not citizenship, to dictate what rights an Iraqi has, and remove protections for women regarding divorce and inheritance.
It’s the latest in a series of attacks by certain political leaders in Iraq against women’s rights and gender equality issues. Already, they have succeeded in criminalizing homosexuality, banning use of the word “gender,” and stalling passage of a law on domestic violence.
The latest proposed amendment has rightly sparked condemnation and widespread protest in Iraq. Women in parliament have joined forces across the political spectrum to fight against passage of the amendment. Iraqi women and men have also taken to the streets in large numbers to demonstrate against it.
Such organizing and protests did manage to delay the second reading of the awful amendment in parliament but only by about two weeks. It continues to move along the process toward becoming law. Strangely, Iraq’s Supreme Court has said the amendment would be constitutional, despite Article 14 of the Constitution guaranteeing equality before the law.
There will be one final reading of the amendment in parliament before it goes to a vote. It’s not exactly clear when that will be.
It is perfectly clear, however, that the Iraqi politicians pushing to legalize child rape should come to their senses, listen to outraged Iraqis, and put a stop to this madness.
