Iraq could allow marriage for girls as young as 9. A survivor says it would fuel rape and child abuse.
www.nbcnews.com
Lawmakers in Iraq are proposing amendments to the country’s Personal Status Law that could allow marriage for girls as young as 9.

Summary

Proposed amendments to Iraq’s Personal Status Law could allow girls as young as 9 to marry, sparking outrage from rights groups and survivors like “Batta,” who endured abuse after being forced into marriage at 11.

The changes would shift decision-making power to clerics, undermining existing protections for women and children established in 1959.

Supporters claim the amendments promote family values, but critics call them a violation of children’s rights and a step toward legalized child abuse.

Activists and lawmakers are working to block the controversial proposal.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      13 days ago

      Were illegal marriages a thing when Saddam was still in charge, or were legislation proposals with any ambiguity about passing a thing when Saddam was still in charge?

      Yes. No. Respectively.

      Great JAQing off about a dictator who gouged out children’s eyes.

      For those wondering about the issue of child marriage in Iraq before the modern day who aren’t perpetual apologists for whatever fascists they can find to drool over,

      “I lost my life the day my marriage began. I was 13, and the man I had to marry was 20 years older than me.” Shaima’s story is one told only within the intimacy of a home. Nestled on the couch of a modest yet tastefully decorated living room, she sips her Turkish coffee, ensuring there are enough grounds left to read her fortune in search of signs of better days. She smokes cigarette after cigarette, taking a long drag before exhaling as if symbolically releasing her life story.

      Born in 1977 in a village near Basra in southern Iraq, Shaima was the eldest of nine siblings raised amid the violence of the 1980s Iran-Iraq War. It was a childhood “with just enough money to buy bread each day, nothing more,” she recalled. “My father sold me to the brother of one of his friends. I didn’t want to marry him; he was too old, violent, and always angry. But I couldn’t refuse.” From this forced marriage came five children. “I had my first child at 14. I was so young and exhausted that one day, I fell asleep while breastfeeding my baby girl. She suffocated and died.” The silence that followed the confession is crushing.

      https://international.la-croix.com/world/in-iraq-activists-fight-against-potential-return-of-child-marriages

        • Randomgal@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          12 days ago

          What hostility? Don’t “just ask questions” if you’re not man enough for the answer.

          • hark@lemmy.worldEnglish
            01·
            12 days ago

            What hostility?

            JAQing off about a dictator

            perpetual apologists for whatever fascists they can find to drool over

            Yeah, what hostility? 🙄

            Then you add in some dumb shit about being “man enough” without a shred of self-awareness. Are you trolling or are you genuinely like this? Note that PugJesus has yet to show where I was “just asking questions” ever, but don’t let that get in the way of your cheerleading for his baseless accusations.