Ja’fari law would reduce the legal age of marriage for girls to nine and legalise marital rape
First off, what is this new Ja’fari legislation? From a political stance, it’s simply a cheap tactic deployed by the current government to win over the Shiite religious voter- those who wish to abide by the outdated and controversial Shiite school of religious law, founded by Jaafar al-Sadiq, the sixth Shiite imam.
The Ja’fari law was submitted to parliament for vote, and if passed would usher in a new age of inequality for women, and set a new standard for anti-human rights. This new legislation would set the legal age of marriage for men to 15 years old, and at just 9 years old for girls. However, with consent from a guardian, father or grandfather, this age could be lowered even further. Under Ja’fari law unconditional polygamy is permitted, and men would have the right to enjoy sex with their wives whenever they wish – legalised marital rape if you will.
The law would also mean that Muslim males cannot “permanently” marry a non-Muslim woman. What does this mean? The Muslim male can marry a non-Muslim temporarily in a mut-a marriage. A mut-a is when a man who wishes to have sex with a woman marries her in the presence of a religious figure, while also (this is where “temporary” comes in) placing a pre-determined date for their eventual divorce- this can range from many years, to a matter of hours.
“The government officials have come up with this backward law instead of combating corruption and terrorism”
Although the bill has not yet been passed, it’s already come under scrutiny from UN law and many human rights activists. Iraq’s UN representative, Nickolay Mladenov, shunned the new proposed legislation, saying that it “risks constitutionally protected rights for women and international commitment”. There has even been a small pocket of internal resistance- Qais Raheem, a Shiite government employee living in eastern Baghdad, firmly believes that this new proposal contradicts the principles of a modern society.
“The government officials have come up with this backward law instead of combating corruption and terrorism,” said Raheem. “This law legalizes rape and we should all reject it.”
Iraq parliament must still ratify the bill before it becomes official law. Fortunately, this is unlikely to happen before parliamentary elections (scheduled April 30th), though Cabinet support maintain that it’s a high priority of current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who is widely speculated to seek a third term.
Image: Google images
The post “This law legalizes rape and we should all reject it”: Iraqi government Ja’fari legislation would violate human rights appeared first on Planet Ivy.