Iraq Passes Laws that Critics Say Will Allow Child Marriage

THE GUARDIAN: Proponents of the amendments – described by activists as ‘disastrous’ – say they align with Islamic principles

Iraq’s parliament has passed amendments to the country’s personal status law that opponents say would in effect legalise child marriage.

The amendments give Islamic courts increased authority over family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Activists argue that this undermines Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and established safeguards for women.

Iraqi law currently sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage in most cases. The changes passed on Tuesday would let clerics rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law, which some interpret to allow marriage of girls in their early teens – or as young as nine under the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shia religious authorities in Iraq.

Proponents of the changes, which were advocated by primarily conservative Shia lawmakers, defend them as a means to align the law with Islamic principles and reduce western influence on Iraqi culture. » | Associated Press in Baghdad | Tuesday, January 21, 2025

America Has a Massive Child Marriage Problem

In the US nearly every state allows child marriage. In some there are even loopholes that allow child rapists to avoid prosecution by marrying the person they raped. In others parents can, in effect, force their children to get married.

It’s a global issue - one in five girls around the world is married as a child - but you might be surprised to know that nearly 250,000 children were married in the US in the first ten years of this century.

In this So What we look at child marriage in the US, why it’s legal and what campaigners are doing to tackle what they see as child abuse.

Iraqi Cabinet Approves Legalizing Marriage For 9-Year-Old Girls

RTT NEWS: Iraq's Council of Ministers have approved a new draft law that would restrict women's rights in matters of inheritance and parental and other rights after divorce, make it easier for men to take multiple wives, and allow girls to be married from age nine.

The new Personal Status Law, which received the Cabinet's nod on February 25, must now be approved by the parliament to become law.

Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi Government to withdraw the pending legislation and ensure that Iraq's legal framework protects women and girls in line with its international obligations.

The draft law, called the Jaafari Personal Status Law, is based on the principles of the Jaafari school of Shia religious jurisprudence, founded by Imam Jaafar al-Sadiq, the sixth Shia imam. » | RTT Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Saudi Arabia: Child Marriage, the Hadiths and the Islamophobia Card
PAKISTAN CHRISTIAN POST: Saudi Arabia continues to allow old men to marry young girls aged eight years old and upwards. The mantra by Muslims and converts to Islam[,] is that Islam equals morality and that Mohammed is a great role model[,] but [doesn’t] this depend[s] on your interpretation of a good role model? Therefore, with Saudi Arabia supporting Islamic Sharia law and believing that society should be based on what Mohammed did and stated in the Hadiths, it is clear that child marriage is sanctioned because Mohammed also married a child.

This reality is creating a problem for the Guardians of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. If this nation modernizes, then it may be seen to be pandering to Western morals and increasing the age of marriage will be challenged by conservative Sunni Islamic leaders in Saudi Arabia.

Ironically, the people who use the “Islamophobia card” are basically trying to prevent individuals speaking out against Islamic Sharia law. This is despite the fact that Islamic Sharia law and the Hadiths support pedophilia, killing homosexuals, killing apostates, chopping hands and feet off for petty crimes, stoning people to death for adultery, and other draconian laws. All these draconian measures are based on the life and sayings of Mohammed.

Therefore, if people are deemed to be “Islamophobic” for fighting against the brutal reality of many Islamic states which are based on hatred and supporting the abuse of children, apostates, homosexuals, and others; then in a world based on justice and morality the overwhelming majority of people should be deemed to be “Islamophobic.”

However, democratic nations, the mass media on a whole, international child advocates, and major institutions like the United Nations are not doing enough to fight against a legal system which clearly discriminates against non-Muslims and allows children to be married to old men.

More surprisingly is that major religious leaders, irrespective if they are Christian, Buddhist, or whatever, appear to be fearful of speaking out against this injustice. The political correct brigade and “trendy left” and “trendy liberals” appear to have “sold their soul” because if anyone speaks out against the brutal reality of Sharia Islamic law then they are deemed to be “Islamophobic.” » | Lee Jay Walker and Murad Makhmudov | Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Yemen: Child Marriage
Watch Journeyman Pictures video here | Monday, November 09, 2009

Wilders Compares Prophet Muhammad to a Pig
NIS NEWS BULLETIN: THE HAGUE - Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders has seized on a news report from Saudi Arabia for peppery written questions to the cabinet. In these, he compares the Islamic prophet Mohammed to a pig.

Wilders has requested clarification from Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen on a marriage in Saudi Arabia between an 80 year old man and a 10 year old child. The child had run away from her elderly husband, but was brought back to him by her father, the English-language website Arab News reports based on a Saudi newspaper.

Wilders asks the minister if he shares the view that "this man is behaving like a pig, just like the barbarous Prophet Mohammed, who married the six year old girl Aisha." The PVV leader wants Verhagen to summon the Saudi Arabian ambassador to express his repugnance. [Source: NIS News Bulletin] | Thursday, August 27, 2009

Wilders' Party Loses Support
DUTCHNEWS.nl: Geert Wilders' anti-immigration PVV party would take 24 seats in the 150-seat parliament if there was a general election tomorrow, four down on last month, according to the latest Politieke Barometer opinion poll.

At the beginning of July, support for the PVV had reached an all-time high of 32, making it the most popular party in the country. It currently has nine seats in parliament.

The new poll says the Christian Democrats are now in the lead, with 37 seats. Coalition party Labour (PvdA) is up two seats at 24.

Meanwhile, research by Synovate for tv programme Nova shows that almost 40% of Wilders' supporters back the PVV because they have lost faith in the government and other political parties. >>> AD | Friday, August 28, 2009

Karzai Backs Down over ‘Abhorrent’ Marital Rape Law
TIMESONLINE: President Karzai bowed to international pressure yesterday by promising to amend a new law condoning marital rape and child marriage that provoked violent clashes in the Afghan capital.

The Shia Family Law, signed by the Afghan President last month, appeared to reintroduce the draconian policies of the Taleban era, such as a ban on married women leaving their homes without their husbands’ permission. The law applies to the 15 per cent of Afghans who are Shia Muslims.

At a press conference in Kabul yesterday Mr Karzai said: “The law is under review and amendments will take place. I assure you that the laws of Afghanistan will be in complete harmony with the constitution of Afghanistan, and the human rights that we have adhered to in international treaties.” >>> Tom Coghlan in Kabul | Tuesday, April 28, 2009