Law to rape girls in Iraq

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[size=52]Law to rape girls in Iraq[/size]

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2024-08-08
The New World
Khaled Suleiman
Concealment of a statement
The draft amendment to the Iraqi Personal Status Law appeared for the first time on 3/8/2014, when the Ministry of Justice in Nouri al-Maliki’s government announced the Jaafari Law as the title for celebrating International Women’s Day. Minister of Justice Hassan al-Shammari said on International Women’s Day that year, “The Jaafari Personal Status Law came to do justice to women, and gave them unprecedented privileges by lowering the age of puberty and inheritance to nine and considering them the sole legitimate heir to their father if he dies. It came to lift the injustice and oppression that women have suffered over the past decades as a result of the positive laws and backward social traditions.”[/size]
[size=45]On June 10 of the same year (10/8/2014), five months after the Iraqi Minister of Justice announced the Jaafari Law, ISIS occupied the second largest city in Iraq in terms of history, diversity and influence, Mosul; and other large parts of the country. That horrific event was enough to anesthetize the Personal Status Law amendment project and put it under wraps waiting for the right time. It was as if the human tragedy that resulted from the cruelty of the extremist organization (ISIS) in the country, and what it included of capturing and enslaving Yazidi girls and women, was enough to postpone another tragedy that would legalize the violation of children’s rights in Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]In 2017, as Iraq approached the end of the promised “victory” over ISIS, the law’s shelf life in the Shiite authorities’ drawers expired and it came out into the open again. Since then, Shiite political forces have been looking for an opportunity to pass the project and make it a law for Shiites. Despite the strong desire of these forces, which were then united by the (Shiite National Alliance), to abolish the Iraqi Personal Status Law under the title of “amendment,” the project remained in the corridors of the Shiite forces without being forgotten. The popular protests in 2019 played a major role in keeping it secret and not trying to pass it in parliament, not to mention the strong opposition of other parliamentary blocs not included under the umbrella of the Shiite Alliance to the draft law.[/size]
[size=45]Today, a full decade after the first official announcement of the project to legalize the marriage of a girl at the age of nine, the Shiites in power in Iraq are back under the umbrella of the (Shiite Coordination Framework) coalition to reactivate the project and pass it according to a deal with the Sunni political forces in the House of Representatives. Since the Shiites in power faced a categorical rejection of the project from the Kurdish, Sunni and independent blocs in the past, they resorted to bargaining this time. They found in the (general amnesty) law that the Sunni blocs want to pass, a golden opportunity to complete the deal and through it eliminate the Iraqi Personal Status Law (1959), which is considered one of the most advanced civil status laws in the Arab world.[/size]
[size=45]What is the Jaafari law?
But what is the new draft personal status law, also known as the Jaafari law, and what is its content? And what is the Iraqi personal status law that the Shiites in power want to abolish? The new draft personal status law is equivalent to Sharia law for the Shiites, allowing and encouraging the marriage of girls at the age of nine. It also prohibits civil marriage between sects and denominations, or at best obstructs it and makes it temporary. To implement the Jaafari law, legislators rely on Article 41 of the Iraqi Constitution of 2005, which states: “Iraqis are free to adhere to their personal status according to their religions, sects, beliefs, or choices, and this shall be regulated by law.” The Shiites in power (the Shiite Coordination Framework) in the Council of Representatives are trying to make this constitutional article a legal basis for abolishing the 1959 law or amending it as it is being discussed in Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The aforementioned constitutional article, in its current form, leaves matters related to personal status such as marriage, inheritance and divorce to the clergy, while the judge becomes an interpreter of the constitutional text and has no legal authority. Consequently, the Jaafari law leaves the citizen in a state of confusion, as it places him in matters of marriage, inheritance, child custody and other rights before courts subject to different sectarian references. In this case, citizens find themselves before the clergy rather than the civil courts.[/size]
[size=45]International and local bodies and organizations have opposed the draft resolution since it was announced in 2014, on the grounds that it conflicts with the rights of women and girls. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) considered that the draft law would contribute to reversing the gains achieved to protect and promote the rights of women and girls protected by the constitution, while Human Rights Watch described the presentation of the draft law to the Iraqi Council of Representatives as a disastrous and discriminatory step against Iraqi women, as it perpetuates sectarian divisions. The international organization called on the Iraqi government to withdraw the law from deliberation and not to present it for discussion in the Council of Representatives.[/size]
[size=45]There is no disagreement about everything that has been said and will be said about this flawed law and its violation of women and girls’ rights locally and internationally. However, there is a more important point, which is that marrying girls at the age of nine is a legalization of the violation of childhood rights, and it is even a legislation for the rape of girls. A girl at the age of nine is still young and is going through a stage of physical growth, not to mention that she has not yet reached her menstrual cycle. Therefore, marrying her at this age is considered rape and a blatant violation of childhood rights.[/size]
[size=45]As for the first personal status law in Iraq, its legislation and issuance dates back to 1959, bearing the number (188), and it is considered more advanced than many other civil laws in the Arab world, as it addressed the rights of men and women, marriage, inheritance, and other issues according to a single legal reference. In this civil law, the first of its kind in the country, Iraqi legislators were inspired by the doctrine of Imam Abu Hanifa al-Nu'man and Imam Abu Jaafar al-Sadiq, and it also included principles from other doctrines. The first personal status law subjected all Muslims in Iraq to unified standards regarding family and marriage, not to mention setting the age of eighteen as the legal age for marriage for both sexes.[/size]
[size=45]Barter
Most Sunni political forces were demanding an amendment to the general amnesty law in Iraq. This point was among the most prominent conditions set by Sunni parties in negotiations to form the government of current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani before voting on it in parliament in October 2022, according to the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada. Mohammed al-Sudani’s ministerial portfolio included the amnesty law in its government program and sent it to the House of Representatives about a year ago (2023) for discussion and voting, which led to strong opposition from Shiite forces.[/size]
[size=45]After a long wait, the House of Representatives was able to pass the first reading of the amendment to the General Amnesty Law on 5/8/2024, amid fears that it would include those convicted of terrorism and belonging to ISIS. This point raised concerns among the Shiite parties about the law in particular, but how did they accept it and what happened? According to Al-Mada newspaper and based on its own sources, the Shiite Coordination Framework “stipulated the discussion of the General Amnesty Law in exchange for amending the Personal Status Law,” as political forces often resort to bargaining with each other to pass controversial laws in one basket. This is what happened regarding the reading of the General Amnesty and Personal Status Laws, based on the newspaper’s information. Thus, the House of Representatives completed the first reading of the proposal to amend the Personal Status Law on the same day.[/size]
[size=45]Two different laws, but if we look at the content and paradoxes they carry, they are closely linked to each other, because the purpose of amending the amnesty law is not to exclude the “ISIS period” in Iraq’s history after 2003. This is the same period in which the Personal Status Law was announced to be amended, and then placed in the drawers of secrecy due to the security and political shocks that Iraq was exposed to, in addition to the loss of large areas of land and cities to the extremist ISIS organization. It is also the same period in which the Yazidi minority in Nineveh Governorate was exposed to the largest genocide in its history, as thousands of women and girls were taken captive and enslaved, and children were separated from their families under the title of slave quarters before the Day of Judgment.[/size]
[size=45]Such a law on personal status cannot be viewed outside of “slavery thinking,” because it degrades women, and subjects the age of puberty for girls to a forced reduction to nine years old, in addition to domination and alienation. That is, we stand once again before the scene of women’s enslavement, but through the laws of sects and denominations. Consequently, if the Shiite Coordination Framework insists on passing it in the House of Representatives and making it a law, the law will encourage other sects and denominations to legislate their own laws, which will create chaos in the laws and legislation, and divide Iraqi society into warring sects.[/size]
[size=45]The Shiite parties want to delude society into believing that they stand by women and protect their rights through this law that gives women the freedom to sign the marriage contract themselves in the absence of a guardian. But the question here is: Is a nine-year-old girl qualified to make decisions and sign the marriage contract? According to all civil laws and regulations and human rights regulations, a person at this age is classified as a child. Consequently, it is a law that contradicts all human rights principles and places Iraq in the category of countries where rape is legal.[/size]
[size=45]The issue is not, as some people think, merely an issue of infringement on women’s rights and granting men the authority to determine marriage and inheritance only, but rather it is an infringement on childhood in the first place, since a child of nine years of age is still in primary school, is not physically complete and does not understand anything about sexual relations, and her age does not qualify her to bear the responsibility of family life, in fact she does not understand it at all.[/size]
[size=45]If the project is approved, Iraq will be in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly resolution in 1990, as it will abandon the most important article in the approved convention, Article (27), which states: “States Parties recognize the right of the child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.” A child in this list of rights, as stated in Article 1 (Part One), is “every human being below the age of eighteen years.” According to the same document, “no child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honor and reputation. The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.” Marrying a girl at the age of nine nullifies all of the aforementioned articles and exposes her rights to serious violations, the first of which is depriving her of the right to live her childhood. Consequently, it is the duty of the Iraqis to stop this project that is humiliating to children, not only, but also the entire world. Even if it is approved and implemented, all the statements of condemnation and human rights regulations will be of no use.[/size]
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