Protests are planned in at least seven provinces across Iraq on Thursday in response to amendments made to a family law framework which could legalize child-marriage, deprive widows their inheritance and allow sex slave trade.

On Sunday, the Iraqi parliament began debating amendments to Personal Status Law that, according to critics, would effectively dissolve the country’s universal standards for protecting women and girls in matters such as consenting to marriage, alimony and custody of children, by allowing men the option to opt out and choose traditional Shiite and Sunni Islamic mandats instead. Despite the fact that child marriages and sex slaves are common in Iraq today, they are technically illegal. Iraqi law requires that both men and woman be at least 18 years old before they can marry. It also allows women to inherit their husband’s assets if he dies.

The 1959 amendments to the Personal Status Law that secularized the law would allow men involved in marriages or marriage proposals to choose between applying Sunni or Shiite Sharia. The law does not mention other religions such as Christianity or Zoroastrianism. It also excludes the Yazidi Faith, which had a vibrant following in Iraq, but was almost completely eradicated by the Islamic State’s “caliphate”. Minority religions are likely to be required to adhere by the Personal Status Law in its current form.

The updated law will require Shiites use a sharia law based on Ja’afari School of Islamic Law. According to the Ja’afari School, girls are allowed to enter into a marriage legally at nine years old and boys can do so at 15 years. The school gives fathers full custody of their children if they divorce, unless he chooses to relinquish it to the mother. It also includes a provision known as “a pleasure marriage,” which is “a temporary marriage, lasting as little as one hour,” as reported by the Middle East outlet, the Media Line. Human rights activists have noted that this provision could be abused by men to facilitate prostitution or sex slave trade, since they can claim it was just a “pleasure wedding.”

Reports indicate that radical Shiite Islamists clerics, as well as other power brokers are exerting significant pressure on lawmakers to pass the law in Parliament. Shiites, a majority of the population in Iraq, have become more influential since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s socialist Sunni regime. This is largely due to the support of Iran. Iran is the largest Shiite country and the most prominent state sponsor of terror. Shiite influencers have gained prominence in recent years following the U.S. supported destruction of the Islamic State’s “caliphate” through the Popular Mobilization Forces, a group of mostly Shiite militias backed by Iran that were integrated into the Iraqi army during the war against ISIS.

An anonymous Iraqi “parliamentary” source spoke to Media Line about the pressure Shiite power exerts on legislators to amend the law in order to undermine women’s and child’s rights.

The source told the outlet that “they are now in negotiations with us. Either we pass the bill or none of the other laws proposed by the remaining blocs will pass. Since they are the majority they may be able to pass this law but they need more voters.”

Human rights activists across the country have been outraged by the proposed amendments. A coalition of more than 15 women in Parliament formed a coalition to fight the amendments.

The National, an Emirati paper, translated the statement. “Our rejection of the proposal is not driven by emotional issues or external motives. It is based upon legal, religious and professional observations and a genuine concern to protect Iraqi families.”

Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet, reported that protesters will take to the streets in seven provinces on Thursday to press lawmakers to reject the amendments. Human rights activists have condemned the new law. The updated law “violates the human rights of women, and excludes girls and women from inheritance and other rights.” “Not to mention the fact that the amendment allows girls to marry off before the age ten,” a women’s right activist told Rudaw.

The amendments’ supporters have insisted on the fact that Islam is the state religion in Iraq, and that those who don’t want to marry children can just refuse to do so. They dismiss the human rights objection that no child should consent to a marriage. Human Rights Watch reported in March 2024 that child marriages in Iraq are common despite the current laws. However, the Iraqi government has done little to enforce them.

Human Rights Watch noted that, according to UNICEF, 28 percent of Iraqi girls are married by the age of 18. According to the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), 22 percent of marriages that were not registered involved girls younger than 14 years old.

Dunya al-Shammari, the chairwoman of the Women, Family, and Children Committee of the Iraqi parliament, was quoted by Shafaq as saying, “the proposal’s first clause states that the Personal Status Law, which is currently in place, will remain unchanged.” Individuals who want to marry according their sectarian beliefs can do so.

Al-Shammari stated that the updated legal code will enhance “freedom and choice.”

Shafaq quoted Sheikh Mohammed Khalil Al-Sanjari as saying that a nine-year-old girl was mature enough to marry.

“This is not a mandatory rule, but it is a general one. A woman is held accountable at age nine, and a male at age fifteen. The cleric said that this depends on the climate of the area.

Sayed Jafar al-Mousawi, a Shiite cleric, told Media Line that “when a girl reaches puberty, and gets her period she is a full-female and has the right of marriage.” When a child reaches the age of puberty, they have the right to get married, so why are we refusing?