Iraqi religious leaders conduct thousands of marriages each year – including child marriages – that flout Iraqi laws and are not officially registered, according to a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released on March 3, 2024.
These marriages violate the rights of women and girls and may leave them in precarious positions without social or financial support, the report said. It called on the country to prosecute religious leaders who conduct such marriages.
According to UNICEF, 28% of girls in Iraq are married before reaching the age of 18.
Additionally, data from the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq shows that 22% of unregistered marriages in the country involve girls under the age of 14.
“Iraq’s personal status law contains provisions protecting women’s rights to dowry and spousal maintenance, known asnafaqah, both during marriage and in case of divorce. However, to be able to avail herself of those rights, she needs a civil marriage contract,” Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Kurdistan Chronicle.
“Often, wives may be pressured into giving up those rights in order to finalize the divorce. One woman we interviewed said her husband pressured her into giving up her rights to dowry and spousal maintenance in order to keep custody of her children, so she got nothing in the divorce. The courts couldn’t help her because she had no marriage contract and her husband refused to participate in the legalization process,” she added.
“If both her marriage and divorce are unregistered, her civil status on her ID will remain “single,” meaning that she won’t be able to apply for the government stipend for divorced women.”
One woman from southeast Baghdad interviewed by HRW, was married at 14 and was divorced by age 15.
“My husband refused to ratify the marriage or divorce contract, so legally I am still single,” she told HRW. “I can’t claim the monthly governmental financial support of 105,000 Iraqi dinars (about $80) for divorced women since I have no proof of my marriage or divorce.”
“I was married when I was 14, and soon after I became pregnant, my husband abandoned our family and took my ID and our religious marriage contract with him,” another woman interviewed by HRW said.
“I was so young, and I had to give birth in my mother’s house with a midwife because I couldn’t go to the hospital. I couldn’t get my daughter her documents, and now she is 16 and still has no documents.”
