The story: Amid the revival of a proposed amendment to Iraq’s personal status legislation, activists have raised alarm that it would fundamentally undermine the rule of law. The changes would in effect shift regulatory power over inheritance and marriage to Iraq’s religious authorities. While touted by the Shiite political establishment as giving Iraqis freedom of choice, critics charge that the amendment will create separate legal and judicial systems, sanction child marriage, and undermine women’s autonomy.

The coverage: The proposed amendment to Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law No. 188 would allow people to decide that all matters related to personal status be governed on the basis of Shiite or Sunni jurisprudence.

The suggested change has triggered immediate criticism from activists, civil society, and political groups. A minority group of lawmakers on July 24 successfully moved to postpone the motion. However, the parliament held an initial reading of the bill on Aug. 4.

• MP Nour Nafie, who led the campaign to strike the proposal down, told Shafaq News that the law would harm Iraqi family life, and “deepen sectarianism in society.”

• Political observer Hadi Aziz Ali argued that the amendment would in effect create two parallel legal authorities in Iraq, divided between civil and religious law.

Iraqi lawyer Alaa Aziz Al-Manea charged that the proposal would fundamentally alter Iraq’s legal structure in favour of religious authorities, thereby undermining the rule of law in the country. 

• Journalist Ali Farhan took to Twitter/X, charging that the suggested changes are “extremely dangerous.” He further called for a “popular stance” against proposals that “undermine family cohesion and the fabric of society.”

Activists have taken to the streets to protest against the bill. While turnout has been apparently low, popular opposition against the amendment has ballooned on social media, with several Iraqi rights groups coming out against the move.

• A statement issued by the Iraqi communist Party described the proposed law as “reactionary” and an example of “political Islam.” The statement further charged that the law would “make women deformed beings, and purely sexual vassals for men devoid of rights and freedoms.”

The context/analysis: The existing personal status law was first adopted under nationalist president Abd Al-Karim Qasim (1958–63) in 1959, replacing the Sunni Hanbali and Shiite Jaafari sharia courts with a unified civil law. Observers commonly claim that its provisions are among the most liberal of their kind in the Arab world.

• In contrast to the existing statutes, Shiite Jaafari sharia law sets the legal age of marriage at nine for girls, and 15 for boys—down from the current age of 18.
   
• The Jaafari school allows a man to legitimately seek a divorce if a woman withholds conjugal relations, and also permits polygamy—practices currently restricted under the 1959 civil code.

Shiite MP Ra’ad Al-Maliki, the politician who submitted the proposal, has claimed that the amendment came “in response to the desire of the religious authority in Najaf.”

• However, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani’s office has denied Maliki’s claim. Notably, Sistani—Iraq’s supreme Shiite religious authority—has consistently opposed previous campaigns to alter statutes related to civil personal status.

• The bill has also been criticized by the Sunni Imam of the Abu Hanifa Mosque, Abdul Sattar Jabbar, charging that it was drafted with a “hateful sectarian spirit.”

Article 41 of Iraq’s current constitution, adopted in 2005, asserts that Iraqis are “free in their commitment” to their personal status rights according to “religions, sects, beliefs, or choices.”

• However, legal observers argue that Article 41 of the constitution contradicts Article 14, which asserts legal equality for all Iraqis, and forbids discrimination on the basis of gender, race, religion, and ethnicity among other categories.

Article 41 was in effect “frozen” after its introduction amid heavy opposition by a coalition of political organizations and activists. Further attempts by Shiite political factions to assert personal status law reform based on these provisions in 2014 and 2017 were similarly blocked.

• Mohammed Al-Khafaji, a member of the parliamentary legal committee, rebuffed these criticisms in an interview, claiming that the current bill is “consistent with the Iraqi constitution.” 

The future: Some political observers suggest that the proposed amendment will only formalize existing extra-legal marriage and inheritance practices. Estimates suggest that one-third of marriages in Iraq are already officiated by religious leaders, and not considered legally valid.

• Following a July 29 cabinet meeting—reportedly covering several crises facing the ruling coalition in Baghdad—the Shiite Coordination Framework issued a statement supporting the re-introduction of the measure. The show of unity suggests that a quid pro quo may have been struck between the main political camps. According to one Kurdish MP, Shiite politicians may support a contentious general amnesty law in exchange for Sunni backing for the personal status law amendment.

• The announcement of the bill was followed by a statement from the Islamic Da’wa Party claiming that the proposed measures are liberatory, and “the product of generous sacrifices by free Iraqis from all social groups.”

• While it is unclear whether the amendment will be approved, its continued backing by Iraq’s Shiite political establishment suggests that advocates may succeed where past campaigns have stalled.

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