In January 2025 Iraq passed a controversial amendment to its personal status law, allowing girls as young as nine to marry. This decision sparked widespread condemnation from human rights organizations and global bodies.
Under Iraq’s new law, girls can legally marry from the age of 9 in certain circumstances, depending on religious interpretations. The legal marriage age for boys has also been reduced from 18 to 15.
The law gives religious authorities the power to decide on family matters, including marriage, divorce, and child custody, and abolishes a longstanding ban on child marriage under the age of 18, which had been in place since the 1950s.
The law also restricts women’s access to fundamental rights, including divorce, child custody, and inheritance, which are all important for their autonomy and safety.
THIS CHANGE SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES PROTECTIONS FOR WOMEN AND MINOR CHILDREN, EXPOSING THEM TO GREATER RISK OF EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE.
CONSENT AROUND THE WORLD
This shift in Iraq is part of a broader global regression in gender equality, with many hard-won rights being rolled back in different parts of the world.
Many countries—including Australia, the United States, and France—have exceptions that legally allow children under the age of 18, to marry with judicial or parental consent under Romeo & Juliet laws. And progress in removing these harmful exceptions has been slow.
In our latest Global Slavery Index, we found that only 35 countries had set a minimum age of marriage at 18 years old without exception.
Attempts to lower the legal marriage age in other countries, such as Bangladesh and Somalia, have led to exceptions that allow children under 18 to marry in specific circumstances, including pregnancy or with a guardian’s consent.
These exceptions normalize child marriage and establish harmful gender norms directly undermining international efforts to end child marriage—including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5, which aims to achieve gender equality by 2030.
Ongoing international pressure is crucial to ensure harmful practices like child marriage are eradicated and that the rights of women and children are protected.
What is the age of consent in your area and what exceptions exist that allow child predators access to our children?
Give our children a voice
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Look into the communities closest to you—find out what their policies are regarding children.
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What are they doing, if anything, to keep children safe.
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When it comes to participating in these activities, do these kids really have a choice?
