Marriage of a 12-year-old teenager angers Iraqis

Women 04:41 PM - 2021-10-31

Media outlets were filled with angry responses to the incident of the marriage of a 12-year-old girl in Iraq.

The girl's mother, who is separated from her husband and the child's father, appealed to the competent authorities, through a video clip posted on social media, to save her child, while the Iraqi Ministry of Interior justified the marriage by saying: "Sharia and law permit the marriage of a minor if her father allows."

The girl's mother confirmed that her minor daughter's marriage took place under a customary and illegal contract.

Meanwhile, the community police at the Ministry of Interior followed up the case, and said in a statement that "it has reached the truth behind what was recently spread on social media which is a video clip of a woman in which she said that her ex-husband and the father of their minor daughter forcibly married their daughter, who was in his care after the mother's divorce from the father, outside the court and without the daughter's consent."

A team of investigators met the girl, her father, her husband, and her brother, and the girl confirmed that the marriage took place with her consent, without anyone forcing her to do so, and that the team was briefed on the legal contract under which the underage girl was married.

Former Iraqi parliament MP Rezan Sheikh Dler told PUKmedia that a 12-year-old girl does not know the meaning of marriage, how can she be married off, and according to the law, a girl must reach 18 years of age to be able to establish a family and marry, or that a girl completes 15 years but under her the consent of her father.

"Such marriage is illegal and the Ministry of Interior has nothing to do with the case," she said, noting the need to file a complaint to the Public Prosecution Office and to prosecute the girl's father.

She also stressed that this marriage is void, and it is a forced marriage and the marriage of young people outside the court, with the importance of approving the laws of child protection and protection from domestic violence.

Child marriage in Iraq represents a concern for many, impeding on community efforts to empower women and contributing to adverse women and newborn health outcomes.

Most married young girls are descendants of poor families and they are disempowered and deprived of their right to choose their right partner, to work, and to get their economic independence, in addition to experiencing the proven complications of early childbirths that are especially an issue for girls younger than 16.




PUKmedia