Iraqi MPs and women's rights groups are alarmed that Iraq's parliament has passed a law allowing children as young as nine to marry, which campaigners say will "legitimize the rape of children".

Under new laws passed yesterday, religious authorities have the power to decide on family matters, including marriage, divorce and child care. It repealed a ban on marriage for children under 18 that had existed since the 1950s.

“The rights of women and children in Iraq are over,” said lawyer Mohammed Juma, one of the most prominent opponents of the law.

Iraqi journalist Saja Hashim said: "The fact that clerics have the upper hand in deciding the fate of women is terrifying. As a woman, I am afraid of everything that will happen in my life."

Activists said they feared the law would now also apply retroactively to cases brought to court before the law was enacted, affecting alimony and custody rights.

Raya Faiq, a spokesperson for the feminist group Coalition 188, said: “We received a recording of a woman crying over the passage of this law and her husband threatening to take her away daughter unless she waives her rights to financial support. "

A 2023 United Nations survey found that child marriage is a long-standing problem in Iraq, with 28% of girls married before turning 18.

While marriage represents an opportunity for some underage girls to escape poverty, many marriages fail, leaving young women with lifelong consequences, including social stigma and a lack of opportunities due to unfinished education.

Rather than tightening laws banning minors from marrying or helping girls from poor families complete their studies, the new law allows minors to marry according to the religious denomination that contracts them.

For Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, the minimum age for marriage for a girl is nine, while for Sunnis the official age is 15.

Independent MP Sajjad Salim said: "The Iraqi state has never experienced the kind of decline and desecration that has damaged Iraq's wealth and reputation like what we are seeing today."

Alia Nassif, a member of parliament's legal committee, said in an online post that the vote took place without the minimum number of MPs required to pass the law and that she and others opposed to the law would travel to Iraq Federal Parliament. The decision was challenged in court.

Benin Elias, an Iraqi journalist and women's rights advocate, said: "I am not shocked. But this is not the time to shed tears or to surrender to a barbaric decision."

Produced in partnership with Iraqi independent media platform Jummar