Bunge la Iraq limepitisha sheria ya 'kutisha' kuruhusu watoto wa umri wa miaka tisa kuolewa, huku wanaharakati wakisema kuwa hatua hiyo itahalalisha ubakaji wa watoto.
Sheria hiyo mpya inazipa mahakama za Kiislamu mamlaka zaidi katika kushughulikia masuala ya kifamilia kama vile ndoa, talaka, na mirathi, huku ikiondoa sheria ya hapo awali inayokataza ndoa za watoto walio chini ya umri wa miaka 18, ambayo imekuwepo tangu miaka ya 1950.
Sheria hiyo imebainisha kuwa Waislamu wa Shia ambao ndio wengi zaidi nchini Iraq, umri wa chini zaidi wa kuolewa utakuwa miaka tisa, na wa Sunni, umri rasmi utakuwa miaka 15.
Pia, Soma:
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Bunge la Iraq lapokea muswada wa kupunguza umri wa kuolewa kutoka miaka 15 mpaka miaka 9
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Serikali ya Kiislamu ya Iraq yapendekeza sheria Watoto Miaka tisa kuolewa
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Iraqi MPs and women’s rights groups have reacted with horror to the Iraqi parliament passing a law permitting children as young as nine years old to marry, with activists saying it will “
legalise child rape”.
Under
the new law, which was agreed yesterday, religious authorities have been given the power to decide on family affairs, including marriage, divorce and the care of children. It abolishes a previous ban on the marriage of children under the age of 18 in place since the 1950s.
“We have reached the end of women’s rights and the end of children’s rights in
Iraq,” said the lawyer Mohammed Juma, one of the most prominent opponents of the law.
The Iraqi journalist Saja Hashim said: “The fact that clerics have the upper hand in deciding the fate of women is terrifying. I fear everything that will come in my life as a woman.”
Activists said they feared the law would now also be applied retroactively to cases filed in courts before it was enacted, affecting rights to alimony and custody.
Raya Faiq, spokesperson for the feminist group Coalition 188, said: “We received an audio recording of a woman crying her eyes out because of the passage of this law, with her husband threatening to take her daughter away unless she gives up her rights to financial support.”
Child marriage has been a longstanding issue in Iraq, where 28% of girls were married before they turned 18, a 2023
UN survey found.
While marriage is presented to some underage girls as a chance to escape poverty,
many of the marriages end in failure, bringing lifelong consequences for young women, including social shame and a lack of opportunities because of unfinished schooling.
Source: theguardian.com