Human Rights Day: Why are girls’ rights under attack in Iraq?

Campaign posters for candidates in Iraq’s 2010 general elections. Photo: Omar Chatriwala/Al Jazeera English used under CC BY-SA 2.0 

There have never been more women in Iraq’s parliament, so why might it be about to open the door to child marriage?

In Iraq and across the world, activists have been speaking up about proposals that could reduce the legal marriage age from 18 to just 9 years old. The debate in the Iraqi parliament has sparked outrage from local women’s groups, who have joined together as part of the 188 Alliance - named for the number designation for Iraq’s ‘personal status law’, the legislation that covers areas of family law and subject of the proposed amendments.

Your rights as a spouse and as a parent are some of the most fundamental and significant ways in which most people interact with the law. As such they have always been one of the main battlegrounds for women’s activism. Arguably, rights in the family have been as important and motivating for gender equality movements as rights in the workplace have been for labor movements.

Personal status laws in the Arab region are often based on religious jurisprudence and practice, enshrining traditions and practices onto the statute book. This means that women face significant discrimination and unequal treatment, with harmful practices enshrined in law - polygamy, for example, remains legal for men in many countries in the region, while many inheritance laws mean that women are entitled to a fraction of the legacies their male relatives might receive.