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New law causes unrest in Iraq, women now no longer have the right to vote in their marriages
2025-12-05 14:39:30 / BOTA
Iraq's recently revised family law is causing international concern, as it introduces provisions that reinforce legal inequality between men and women.
According to Human Rights Watch, the “new Personal Status Code,” the Ja’afari Personal Status Code, approved by the Iraqi parliament on August 27, 2025, gives men greater control over important areas such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance.
The February 2025 amendment allows couples to choose whether their marriage will be governed by the 1959 Personal Status Law or the new code, which is based on the Shiite school of Islamic law.
However, the new framework includes provisions that undermine women's fundamental rights. Among other things, it allows a man to unilaterally change the legal status of a marriage, without the wife's knowledge or consent, and to proceed with a divorce without notifying her.
In addition, child custody is automatically transferred to the father when the children reach the age of seven, regardless of the child's best interests.
Although a number of even more extreme provisions were withdrawn after strong reactions from women's organizations, including a provision that would have lowered the minimum marriage age for girls to 9 years old, the new code continues to nullify hard-won rights.
“The new Personal Status Code further institutionalizes discrimination against women, leaving them legally second-class citizens,” said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. Women’s groups in the country are calling for the law’s immediate repeal, saying it reinforces a perception that treats women as “appendages of men” rather than as equal members of society.
A specific case is Ghazal H., who, ten years after her divorce, was informed that her ex-husband had filed a lawsuit to have the new code applied retroactively to their marriage, seeking to take away custody of their ten-year-old son.
She described years of domestic violence, which even led to an abortion, and noted that her ex-husband had been convicted of beating her. However, the new law allows him to seek custody, even though the marriage was concluded under the previous legal framework.
The problem has deeper roots, as Iraq remains without a law on domestic violence (except in the Kurdistan Region), while the current penal law still allows a husband to “discipline” his wife and offers reduced sentences for crimes committed for “honor reasons.”
Human rights organizations warn that the new code is not just a women's issue, but a social problem that risks being perpetuated in future generations.
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