TAJÊ: Iraq is legitimizing the ISIS mentality of marrying off nine-year-old children

The Yazidi Women’s Freedom Movement (TAJÊ) in Shengal (Sinjar) issued a statement criticizing a recently approved amendment to the Iraqi Personal Status Law, which has been pushed by the government in Baghdad since July 2024. On January 21, the Iraqi parliament passed an amendment to a law regulating family matters. Civil society associations, led by feminist organizations, have protested and strongly criticized the amendment to Personal Status Law No. 188 in recent months, saying it would pave the way for child marriage.

Legal amendment also criticized internationally

This is not the first time the law has been the subject of public debate. The second paragraph, which regulates marriage, has repeatedly been the subject of discussion, both nationally and internationally. According to the government, the law should no longer be subject to civil law, but to the respective legal schools of the denominations to which the spouses concerned belong. According to Islamic jurisprudence, the change would legalize the marriage of girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15. People would no longer be seen as citizens with equal rights, but rather the respective denominations would have become decisive.

Marriages possible at the age of 15

In January, the members of parliament agreed on a revised version of the 1959 Personal Status Law. This new version retains the previous regulation on the minimum age for marriage, which is 18 years old. However, with the consent of a legal guardian and a judge, marriages can be authorized from the age of 15. Furthermore, fundamental restrictions were made to parental custody and inheritance rights for women.

Justification of ISIS mentality

The TAJÊ sees the adopted amendment as a threat to the rights of women and girls. Yazidi women in particular, as well as society as a whole, have expressed their clear rejection of the law, as it poses a danger to Iraqi society and people. The amendment to the Personal Status Law was put on the agenda by parliament together with the amendment to the General Amnesty Law, which, among other things, provides for the release of members of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (ISIS). The Yazidi Women’s Movement pointed out the imminent danger of further massacres and views the actions of the Iraqi government as legitimizing the jihadist mentality. In connection with the genocide in Shengal perpetrated by ISIS from August 2014 onwards, the movement also blamed the Iraqi government, the actions of the ruling party KDP and the collaboration with the Turkish state, without which the genocide could not have been carried out. “Instead of paying its debt to Shengal and its Yazidi citizens or fulfilling its moral obligations, the Iraqi state is issuing a general amnesty, including for ISIS members. Furthermore, it is legitimizing the ISIS mentality of marrying off nine-year-old children and even wanted to make a law out of it,” said TAJÊ.

Ongoing genocide against Yazidis

TAJÊ draws attention to the history of the genocide that began on August 3, 2014, with the self-proclaimed ISIS and is referred to by the Yazidi society as the 74th genocide. The Yazidi community, and especially its women, were targeted by the jihadists’ brutality at the time. But the persecution and killing of Yazidis is not over, TAJÊ said and continued: “We would like to remind everyone once again that thousands of Yazidi women, children and men are still being held captive by ISIS today. Ten years have passed since the attack, but the Iraqi government has still not fulfilled its duties and responsibilities in the face of the genocide against the Yazidi community. To this day, the country has not officially recognized the genocide and has not held the perpetrators accountable. We want the voice of Yazidi women to reach the world. The Yazidi community has indeed been subjected to 74 genocides, and today the Yazidi community and Yazidi women are once again facing the threat of a massacre. If a massacre occurs, the Iraqi government will be responsible for it.”

Call to break the silence

The TAJÊ called on international forces, human rights organizations, states that have recognized the genocide against the Yazidis, and all parties claiming to fight terrorism not to tacitly suggest their approval. The law on personal status, it said, means destroying women and lives and poses a threat to society as a whole.

Iraq in the footsteps of Iran

Iraq was once one of the most secular societies in the Middle East, with relatively great freedoms for women – similar to Iran before 1979. But since pro-Iranian, Shiite forces have been in de facto power in the country, Iraq has been threatening to take a similar path to Iran. After a recent law against homosexuality, the new law is now intended to restrict women and children. The massive protest against this has at least led to the fact that girls are not allowed to be married at the age of nine, as originally demanded. In these cases, Islamic scholars are to define appropriate regulations within four months, which must then still be decided by parliament.