Report on Child Marriage in Iraq and its Implications for Sustainable Development Goals

Introduction: A Violation of Human Rights and a Barrier to Sustainable Development

The practice of child marriage in Iraq represents a significant impediment to the nation’s progress toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Recent public discourse and legislative amendments have normalized this harmful practice, directly contravening international human rights standards and undermining key development objectives. This report analyzes the current situation in Iraq, highlighting the conflict between the promotion of child marriage and the commitments outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

The Normalization of Child Marriage in Public and Legal Spheres

Political and Religious Endorsements Contravening SDG 5

Recent events, such as the Sulaimani Forum, have provided a platform for political figures to defend child marriage under the guise of cultural and religious tradition. Zahra al-Sadr of the Al-Hikma Movement publicly framed “early marriage” as a cultural issue devoid of coercion, dismissing human rights-based opposition as “Western propaganda.” Such rhetoric from influential figures normalizes a practice that directly violates SDG Target 5.3, which calls for the elimination of all harmful practices, including child, early, and forced marriage. This public endorsement by political and religious leaders, including Ammar al-Hakeem and Hadi al-Madrasi, actively works against the goal of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

Legislative Changes Undermining SDG 16

The legal framework in Iraq is regressing, further endangering girls and weakening institutional protections. Key legislative concerns include:

• Amended Personal Status Law (February 2025): This law allows Shiite marriage contracts to bypass the civil court system, creating a parallel legal structure that undermines unified state law and accountability, a direct challenge to SDG 16’s call for strong, unified institutions and the rule of law.
• Proposed “Jafari Personal Status Law”: Previous drafts of this sectarian law proposed lowering the marriage age for girls to as young as eight. The July 2024 version institutionalizes sectarian legal pluralism, delegating authority to religious endowments and creating ambiguity that can be exploited to facilitate child marriages, even if they remain unregistered until the legal age is met.

These legal shifts erode the state’s ability to protect its youngest citizens, directly conflicting with SDG Target 16.2, which aims to end abuse, exploitation, and all forms of violence against children.

Statistical Analysis: The Scale of the Challenge to SDG Targets

Child Marriage Rates in Iraq

Data from international bodies illustrates the severity of the issue in Iraq, indicating a failure to meet SDG targets related to child protection and gender equality.

• According to UNICEF, 28% of Iraqi women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18.
• The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) reports that 22% of unregistered marriages involve girls under 14.
• Human Rights Watch notes a steady increase in the rate of child marriage in the country.
• Rates are disproportionately high in southern, Shiite-majority governorates: 43.5% in Maysan, 37.2% in Najaf, and 36.8% in Karbala.

Global and Regional Context

Iraq’s high rates place it among the most concerning countries in the Middle East and North Africa, alongside Egypt, Iran, Sudan, and Yemen. Globally, 12 million girls are married before age 18 each year, demonstrating that this is a worldwide barrier to achieving the SDGs.

Consequences of Child Marriage on Sustainable Development

Impact on SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 8 (Decent Work)

Child marriage systematically denies girls their right to education and future economic participation, creating a cycle of poverty and inequality. The consequences include:

• Forgoing education, which permanently limits personal and professional development.
• Exclusion from careers and public life, hindering progress toward SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).
• Lifelong socioeconomic disadvantage, reinforcing gendered poverty and hampering national economic progress.

Impact on SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being)

The practice has severe and well-documented health consequences for girls, undermining SDG 3.

• Increased risk of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, including higher rates of intimate partner violence.
• Complications from early pregnancy and childbirth, leading to higher maternal mortality rates (a direct setback for SDG Target 3.1).
• Significant and lasting psychological trauma.

The Role of Jurisprudence, Media, and Institutional Failures

The Weaponization of Religious and Cultural Justifications

Proponents of child marriage frequently cite religious texts and jurisprudence to legitimize the practice. Rulings from figures like Ayatollah Khomeini and Ali al-Sistani, along with hadiths from sources like Sahih al-Bukhari, are invoked to permit marrying girls as young as nine. This is often framed as a defense of cultural identity against external influence, a narrative that deliberately obscures the violation of fundamental human rights. This use of religious authority to justify harm is a critical failure of the social institutions meant to protect citizens.

Media as an Amplifier of Harmful Discourse

Iraqi media outlets have increasingly provided a platform for debates that normalize child marriage. Televised programs often feature clerics justifying the practice, framing it as a theological matter rather than a human rights violation. These discussions, which often lack the voices of survivors, contribute to a public environment where pedophilia is debated under the guise of religious freedom. This media complicity undermines efforts to foster a culture of human rights and accountability, which is essential for SDG 16.

Recommendations for Aligning with the 2030 Agenda

Legal and Institutional Reforms

To meet its commitments under the SDGs, Iraq must take urgent action to reform its legal and institutional frameworks.

1. Enforce a Unified Civil Law: Establish and enforce 18 as the minimum age for marriage without exception, aligning with international standards and SDG Target 5.3. Eliminate legal loopholes that allow sectarian or informal marriages to circumvent civil law.
2. Strengthen Child Protection Systems: Ensure that state institutions, not religious bodies, have the ultimate authority to protect children. This includes implementing standardized, scientific assessments of maturity rather than relying on discretionary judicial or clerical judgments (SDG 16.2).
3. Promote Accountability: Hold political and religious leaders accountable for rhetoric that promotes harmful practices. Major digital platforms should continue to restrict content that facilitates or normalizes child marriage.

Socio-Economic and Educational Interventions

Addressing the root causes of child marriage is critical for sustainable progress.

• Invest in Girls’ Education: Improve access to and quality of education as a direct alternative to early marriage, empowering girls and advancing SDG 4.
• Expand Economic Opportunities for Women: Provide pathways for women to enter the labor market, enhancing their financial independence and reducing the economic pressures that lead to child marriage (SDG 8 and SDG 1).
• Public Awareness and Health Services: Launch campaigns to educate the public on the severe harm caused by child marriage and ensure girls have access to comprehensive health services and information, including reproductive health (SDG 3 and SDG 5).

Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

SDG 5: Gender Equality

• The article’s central theme is child marriage, which it describes as a practice “rooted in gender discrimination” and an issue that “disproportionately affects girls.” This directly connects to the goal of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. The text highlights how the practice reduces a girl’s value to being a “pawn” and reinforces patriarchal norms where a girl’s worth is “tied to her marital status and sexual availability.”

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

• The article extensively discusses the failure of legal and political systems in Iraq to protect girls. It details the amended Personal Status Law, which allows “marriage contracts within the Shiite community to bypass the civil court system,” and the “institutionalizing sectarian legal pluralism.” This points to a weakness in institutions, a lack of rule of law, and a failure to provide justice for all, particularly for vulnerable children. The article states that the situation exposes a “deeper institutional failure — one in which the state’s unwillingness to confront religious power leaves girls especially vulnerable.”

SDG 4: Quality Education

• A direct consequence of child marriage mentioned in the article is the loss of educational opportunities. It states, “Most girls who enter into an early marriage end up forgoing education, careers and public status.” UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham is quoted with the goal “to keep children in education and out of marriages,” explicitly linking the two issues.

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

• The article points out the severe health consequences of child marriage, including “physical and psychological trauma,” “complications from early pregnancy and childbirth,” and “higher maternal mortality.” This connects to the goal of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being, especially concerning reproductive health and the prevention of violence.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

• The article links child marriage to a lack of economic opportunities. It notes that girls who marry early “end up forgoing… careers” and that providing “educational and economic opportunities” is a necessary part of the solution. This relates to the goal of achieving productive employment and decent work for all.

What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

Target 5.3: Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

• This is the most directly relevant target. The entire article is a detailed analysis of child marriage in Iraq and globally. It explicitly calls child marriage a “harmful social practice” and a “clear violation of human rights.” The article provides numerous statistics, such as “each year, 12 million girls worldwide are married before the age of 18,” to illustrate the scale of this harmful practice.

Target 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.

• The article connects child marriage to various forms of child abuse. It describes unregistered “pleasure” marriages as being “akin to prostitution and human trafficking, especially when they involve underage girls.” It also notes that opponents of child marriage argue it “constitutes pedophilia, child rape and sexual abuse” and that “intimate partner violence is higher among adolescent girls and women who married as children.”

Target 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.

• The article highlights how child marriage makes girls “vulnerable to physical, emotional and sexual abuse that ends up defining the rest of their lives.” The discussion of “pleasure” marriages being akin to trafficking and the higher rates of intimate partner violence directly align with this target’s goal of eliminating violence against women and girls.

Target 4.1: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education.

• The article establishes a clear link between child marriage and the denial of education. The statement that “Most girls who enter into an early marriage end up forgoing education” shows that the practice is a significant barrier to achieving universal secondary education, particularly for girls.

Target 16.B: Promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development.

• The article’s critique of Iraq’s amended Personal Status Law, which institutionalizes “sectarian legal pluralism” and creates loopholes for child marriage, is a direct commentary on discriminatory laws. It contrasts this with progress in other countries like the U.K. and Germany, which have passed laws to set the legal age for marriage at 18 without exceptions, thereby promoting non-discriminatory policies.

Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

Indicator 5.3.1: Proportion of women aged 20–24 years who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18.

• The article provides precise data that aligns with this indicator. It cites UNICEF estimates that “28% of women currently aged 20 to 24 in [Iraq] were first married or in a union before the age of 18.” It also gives rates for other countries, such as Bangladesh where “half of girls there are married before the age of 18,” and Pakistan where “the rate is 18%.”

Indicator 16.2.2: Number of victims of human trafficking per 100,000 population, by sex, age and form of exploitation.

• The article implies the relevance of this indicator by describing how temporary “mutah” or “pleasure” marriages, often involving underage girls, “can be akin to prostitution and human trafficking.” A BBC investigation is cited, which found these marriages have become a “lucrative business for the clerics who facilitate them,” suggesting a measurable form of exploitation.

Indicator 5.1.1: Whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex.

• The article provides a detailed analysis of legal frameworks related to marriage age. It discusses Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law (age 18 with exceptions), the 2024 amendment that allows religious laws to bypass civil courts, and the draft “Jafari Personal Status Law” that would have allowed marriage for girls as young as 8. It also mentions legal reforms in the U.K., Germany, and Kuwait that raised the minimum marriage age to 18, serving as a measure of progress in establishing non-discriminatory legal frameworks.

Prevalence rates of child marriage at sub-national levels.

• While not an official global indicator, the article provides specific sub-national data that can be used to measure progress within Iraq. It states, “The rate of marriage for girls under 18 is 43.5% in Maysan, 37.2% in Najaf and 36.8% in Karbala.” Tracking these regional figures would be a key measure of progress towards eliminating child marriage.

Summary of Findings

Source: newlinesmag.com