Iraq Marriage Bill Will Allow Girls To Marry At Age 8 — How Is This Okay?

A new law being considered in Iraq could allow girls as young as 8-years-old to get married. The same horrific law allows husbands to have sex with their wives ‘with or without’ consent. How can something this sick even be considered?

Iraq is seriously considering Jaafari Personal Status Law, which would let little girls as young as 8-years-old get married and have sex with their husbands. It’s disgusting.

Iraq Wants Little Girls To Marry At Age 8

There are no words for this one.

Iraq is seriously considering passing a new law called Jaafari Personal Status Law which would allow girls as young as 8-years-old to legally marry. The law itself actually reads girls age 9, but because Iraq follows the lunar Islamic calendar their age 9 actually equals the age of 8 years and 8 months. The law also mentions this is the same age that girls reach puberty. Is this their justification for allowing such young girls to be forced into marriage?

Making matters even worse, the same reads that a husband can have sex with his wife with or without her consent. This means that if an 8-year-old gets married, she could raped by her husband and it would not be illegal

The law is supposedly based on the principles of a Shiite school of religious law founded by Jaafar al-Sadiqhimself, the sixth Shiite imam. It still needs to be approved by Parliament, however there is a slim chance that will happen before the April 30 elections

New Marriage Law Receiving Harsh Criticism

As you can assume, this controversial new proposed law is receiving some very harsh criticism from all over the world. In fact, New York based Human Rights Watch activist Joe Stork has been speaking out about the law, calling it a ‘step back’ for women’s rights.

“Passage of the Jaafari law would be a disastrous and discriminatory step backward for Iraq’s women and girls,” Joe said in a statement. “This personal status law would only entrench Iraq’s divisions while the government claims to support equal rights for all.”

Shiite government employee Qais Raheem is lashing out as well, claiming that this law actually goes against the principles of modern life.

“The government officials have come up with this backward law instead of combating corruption and terrorism,” the father of two teenage girls said. “This law legalizes the rape and we should all reject it.”

Hopefully this law never gets passed and little girls in Iraq can actually be little girls.