ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi women activists on Sunday took to the streets of Baghdad to protest child marriage following a recent union of a twelve-year-old girl with an older man that sparked a flame of anger as the country waits for the announcement of final results in an election that could begin a reshaping of the political agenda.
Israa was married off to an older man by her father, without the approval of her mother, who is divorced and is Israa’s legal guardian. She shared a cry for help in a video that went viral. “He wants to marry her [Israa] to his wife’s brother. He showed me the cleric’s [marriage] contract,” she said, her coal-like tears running down her face.
Iraqi law sets the legal age for marriage at 18 and prohibits child marriage, but allows a judge to permit girls as young as 15 to be married in “urgent cases.” The Personal Status Law that was enacted in 1959 also bans forced marriage, expands women’s rights to access divorce, and grants child custody to mothers.
However, forced and child marriages still occur in Iraq as the laws are often not enforced. Families usually arrange marriages through religious marriage contracts separate from the legal system, as in the case of Israa. These religious marriages are not considered legal until they are registered by a court. Sometimes women are forced to marry for the family’s financial benefit or they are married off to settle a family or tribal feud. Female assault victims are often pressured to marry their rapist to maintain the family’s honor.
Israa was raped by the man her father forced her to wed, according to activist and feminist Yanar Muhammad. “The cleric went and married her to a rapist husband and he is here today to ratify the contract in court,” Muhammad told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz early on Sunday morning.
She was among a group of women protesting outside the courthouse where Israa’s mother was trying to stop the legalization of the marriage.
The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) in a statement on Facebook demanded the abolishment of Israa’s marriage contract and called for the imprisonment of her father and the man she was forced to marry. It also called for the enactment of a law that criminalizes all marriages of minors.
Israa’s case inspired rage on social media after the community police published a statement on October 29 saying that the child, in the presence of her father, brother, and so-called husband, confirmed that the marriage took place with her consent, and “without anyone forcing her.” Social media users accused the authorities of complicity in what they described as a crime.
“Iraq is selling our daughters,” Muhammad said angrily, questioning whether the law protects girls or not.
Women who are pressured into a marriage are often accompanied by their parents to court and too fearful to stand up to their family or later file a complaint, fearing it could put their lives in danger.
There are laws currently before the parliament on issues that directly affect the safety of Iraq’s women and girls. Last month’s parliamentary election saw an unprecedented number of seats won by protest movements, independents, and women, but women’s issues were largely ignored during the campaign.
“Unfortunately, so far I haven’t seen any candidate deal with sensitive topics concerning society in general, with respect to the laws - the laws of domestic violence, women’s laws, children’s laws. I haven’t seen a voice or a special program from the women candidates regarding these matters,” human rights activist Rua’a Ali Darwish said during election campaigning in early October.
The Iraqi presidency presented the Anti-Domestic Violence law to parliament in 2019, but it has not been adopted yet despite pressure from the United Nations. Proposed amendments to the custody law favour fathers and grandfathers over mothers, raising concerns that women could feel compelled to stay in abusive relationships for fear of losing their children.
