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Baghdad’s bridal industry has seen a massive boom since Iraq legalized child marriage, and human rights organizations have warned that young girls are being auctioned off in black market sales to older men, a Sunday Times investigation revealed on Saturday.
The relatives of Amani, a 12-year-old girl set to be married off to a 17-year-old she has never met, told the Sunday Times that the ceremony would go ahead “without the need for her permission.”
A local cleric confirmed that Amani could be married, as she had started puberty.
Iraq’s decision to introduce the Ja’fari law in January means that girls can be married based on perceived “maturity and physical capacity.”
One of Amani’s relatives admitted that, after the amendment passed, four of her younger cousins were quickly married off to older men for “financial reasons.”
An activist told the paper that under the new law, “parents can exchange daughters for money or status,” and the legislation amounted to “legalizing child rape.”
Even before the law passed, 28% of girls in Iraq were married before the age of 18, and a further 22% of unregistered marriages involve girls under 14, the United Nations reported in 2023.
Ghezi, who oversees shelters for runaway girls of forced marriage under The Organization of Women’s Freedom Iraq (OWFI) in Baghdad, confirmed to the paper, “We have seen a growing black market in Iraq where fathers are selling their daughters, pulling them out of education, mostly because of poverty … but they have been encouraged by some [clerics] who may benefit.”…
The relatives of Amani, a 12-year-old girl set to be married off to a 17-year-old she has never met, told the Sunday Times that the ceremony would go ahead “without the need for her permission.”
A local cleric confirmed that Amani could be married, as she had started puberty.
Iraq’s decision to introduce the Ja’fari law in January means that girls can be married based on perceived “maturity and physical capacity.”
One of Amani’s relatives admitted that, after the amendment passed, four of her younger cousins were quickly married off to older men for “financial reasons.”
An activist told the paper that under the new law, “parents can exchange daughters for money or status,” and the legislation amounted to “legalizing child rape.”
Even before the law passed, 28% of girls in Iraq were married before the age of 18, and a further 22% of unregistered marriages involve girls under 14, the United Nations reported in 2023.
Ghezi, who oversees shelters for runaway girls of forced marriage under The Organization of Women’s Freedom Iraq (OWFI) in Baghdad, confirmed to the paper, “We have seen a growing black market in Iraq where fathers are selling their daughters, pulling them out of education, mostly because of poverty … but they have been encouraged by some [clerics] who may benefit.”…
