The coalition government says the move aligns with a strict interpretation of Islamic law and aims to protect young girls from “immoral relationships.”

The second reading of the amendment to Law 188 was adopted on September 16.

This is not the first time that Shiite parties in Iraq have attempted to change the personal status law – attempts to amend it failed in 2014 and 2017, largely due to backlash from Iraqi women.

But the coalition now has a large parliamentary majority and is poised to push the amendment over the line, said Dr Renad Mansour, a senior fellow at Chatham House.

“This is the closest it’s ever been,” he told the Telegraph. “It has more momentum than ever, mainly because of the Shiite parties,” he said.

“It’s not all Shia parties, it’s just the ones that have power and are really pushing it. »

Dr Renad added that the proposed amendment was part of a broader political move by Shiite Islamist groups aimed at “consolidating their power” and regaining their legitimacy.

“Emphasizing the religious side is a way for them to try to regain some of the ideological legitimacy that has declined in recent years,” he said. The telegraph.

It is not yet clear when exactly the amendment will be put to a vote in Parliament, but it could happen at any time, he said.

An attack on women, girls… and the social fabric of Iraq

Experts and activists say the amendment would effectively erase women’s most important rights in the country.

“The amendment would not only undermine these rights,” said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. “That would erase them.”

Athraa Al-Hassan, international human rights legal advisor and director of Model Iraqi Woman, said: The telegraph she “fears” that Iraq’s system of governance will be replaced by a new system known as jurist tutelage – a Shiite system that places religious power above the state.

The system is the same as that underpinning the regimes of Afghanistan and Iran, where a guardian jurist serves as the country’s supreme leader.

Iraq already has high rates of child marriage. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), approximately 28 percent of Iraqi women are married by age 18.

This is due to a loophole in the personal status law that allows religious leaders, instead of courts, to perform thousands of marriages each year – including those involving girls as young as 15, courtesy of the father.

These unregistered marriages are widespread in Iraq’s economically poor and ultra-conservative Shiite communities.

But because weddings are not recognized by law, girls and their children are denied a multitude of rights.

For example, hospitals may refuse women admitted for childbirth without a marriage certificate.

The amendment would legitimize these religious marriages, putting young girls at increased risk of sexual and physical violence, as well as denying them access to education and employment, according to Human Rights Watch.