"Personal Status" .. Winning a round or passing a law?

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[size=52]"Personal Status" .. Winning a round or passing a law?[/size]

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2024-09-23
Baghdad
The insistence of the House of Representatives on passing amendments to the Personal Status Law seems unprecedented in its legislation of laws, especially since the second reading of the law took place amidst a forest of internal and external objections, which observers interpreted as an attempt to “impose the will” of the majority of the forces of political Islam. While a legal expert believes that the current law is comprehensive and does not need amendments, he is surprised by the “exaggeration” in objecting to the amendments.[/size]
[size=45]Political analyst Iyad Al-Anbar said, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed”, that “passing the amendment to the Personal Status Law seems primarily to be an attempt to impose the will of the forces of political Islam under the title of majority and indifference to internal and external objections.”[/size]
[size=45]“There are logical arguments put forward by parliamentarians, legal experts, and civil society institutions that were very accurate and objective, but it seems that the title of this issue is imposing the will of the majority and the right of the component, and this will has become the most prominent title in this parliamentary session,” Al-Anbar added, noting that “the insistence on passing the law and not caring about objections and criticism falls within the context of electoral calculations and winning the public.”[/size]
[size=45]Although he rules out “international dealings at the level of sanctions if Iraq goes ahead with the law,” he believes that “there is a technical aspect that keeps this issue pending more than it is being implemented, which is writing the code after six months and voting on it. If it is passed during the term of the current council, then the possibility exists. If it is not passed, then I believe that the issue is intended to win a round, not to pass a law.”[/size]
[size=45]Although the new law pulls the rug out from under the courts’ authority in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance, the Supreme Judicial Council announced its implicit support for it yesterday, as it confirmed that amending the Personal Status Law, in its form proposed in the House of Representatives, will not be limited to “marrying minors” and depriving “women’s rights.”[/size]
[size=45]The Shiite “Coordination Framework” parties are counting on their parliamentary majority to pass these proposed amendments to the Personal Status Law, which enjoys the support of religious authorities in Najaf, and to secure the support of the Sunni blocs, which are demanding in return the issuance of a general amnesty law for thousands of prisoners, as part of what is described as a political deal to pass both laws together.[/size]
[size=45]Last week, the House of Representatives completed the second reading of two articles of the proposed amendment to the Personal Status Law, in a session that witnessed many objections.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the director of the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies, Ghazi Faisal, believes, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed,” that “the proposed amendments, even if they are not yet completely clear, will take a sectarian direction, meaning that there are provisions specific to the Jaafari school of thought and others to the Hanafi school of thought, as well as to Christians with their religious divisions. This does not exist in all countries that adopt a single civil law for marriage, divorce, inheritance, etc., and it is a state law that applies to all citizens.”[/size]
[size=45]Faisal believes that “any person can, after the marriage contract is concluded within the civil framework, go to a religious marriage contract with a cleric or church within the framework of his religious and sectarian faith. Therefore, it is assumed that the state law, which is the Personal Status Law that was enacted in 1959, which permits the legal contract according to the Jaafari or Hanafi school of thought, should be maintained.”[/size]
[size=45]He points out that “Iraq and Egypt followed the legislative approach in French laws, and these laws are set within foundations, and they include rights for women, including not marrying before the age of majority and completion of maturity, with some differences in rights.”[/size]
[size=45]Faisal concludes that “any violation of these laws, which represent the development and civilization of peoples and the transition from backward to developed societies, provokes the ire of the international community. We have witnessed that the European Union threatened to reduce representation in Iraq if the amendments were approved, because the proposals of the law contradict international laws, and this may lead to negative international positions with the Iraqi legislator.”[/size]
[size=45]Member of the Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee, Abbas al-Jubouri, revealed that Iraq had received a “threat” from the European Union, to impose “sanctions and reduce the level of relations” in the event that the Personal Status Law was amended. The US Ambassador to Baghdad, Alina Romanowski, had previously expressed her concern about the draft law amendment.[/size]
[size=45]At the end of last August, dozens of female intellectuals and activists issued a statement in which they rejected the draft amendment and considered it to represent “a retreat and a consecration of sectarianism and denominationalism” with regard to women’s and children’s rights, in comparison with the current Law 188, which is considered among the best and most modern civil laws related to personal status in Iraq and the region, according to their description.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, legal expert Ahmed Al-Abadi, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed”, believes that “the Iraqi Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959 is a law derived from Islamic law and was written and organized by legal scholars, not clerics, so there is no purpose in making new amendments as long as the law is fair to everyone.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Abadi added, “The changes are very minor, including what relates to writing a code for sects six months after the law goes into effect. The amendments to the law also added permission for a man to marry more than one wife, while the previous law imposed a minor fine, and whoever intends to marry certainly has the ability to pay it.”[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the marriage of minors, he confirms that “this issue is permitted by the Jaafari and Hanafi schools of thought, and it is constantly taking place. The court’s decision in this regard is revealing and not creating, because the marriage takes place with the knowledge of the girl’s guardian from the cleric, so even the objections to these amendments are exaggerated.”[/size]
[size=45]The amendment to the Personal Status Law is based on introducing radical changes to the current law, including allowing girls to marry at the age of nine, restricting women’s rights to inheritance and custody, and granting judges the authority to apply Islamic law to family disputes according to their sect. Critics of the amendment believe that it contributes to undermining the rights of women and children, increases sectarian fanaticism, and threatens to return Iraq to ancient times when women were deprived of their basic rights.[/size]
[size=45]On August 17, the Nakhil Center for Rights and Press Freedoms monitored the existence of “incitement” campaigns led by clerics against lawyers and activists because of their opinions on the draft amendment to the Iraqi Personal Status Law, which sparked a wave of widespread criticism on social media.[/size]
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