CIVICUS discusses women’s and girls’ rights in Iraq with Mohammed Juma, a lawyer and human rights defender based in Baghdad.
Iraq’s parliament, dominated by conservative Shia Muslim parties, is set to vote on controversial amendments to the 1959 Personal Status Law that could lower the minimum age for marriage to nine and remove women’s rights to divorce, custody and inheritance. The changes would legalise and intensify rights violations against women and girls and deepen sectarian divisions. Civil society fears Iraq could be moving closer to the model of gender apartheid imposed in Afghanistan and Iran.