married<\/a> based on perceived \u201cmaturity and physical capacity.\u201d<\/p>\nOne of Amani\u2019s relatives admitted that, after the amendment passed, four of her younger cousins were quickly married off to older men for \u201cfinancial reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3d296424994d4aee07a340b41bdcb8a0.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
A girl holds a placard as activists demonstrate against female child marriages, in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad on July 28, 2024, amid parliamentary discussion over a proposed amendment to the Iraqi Personal Status Law. Rights advocates are alarmed by a bill introduced to Iraq’s parliament that, (credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
An activist told the paper that under the new law, \u201cparents can exchange daughters for money or status,\u201d and the legislation amounted to \u201clegalizing child rape.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Ghezi, who oversees shelters for runaway girls of forced marriage under The Organization of Women\u2019s Freedom Iraq (OWFI) in Baghdad, confirmed to the paper, \u201cWe have seen a growing black market in Iraq where fathers are selling their daughters, pulling them out of education, mostly because of poverty \u2026 but they have been encouraged by some [clerics] who may benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ghezi added, \u201cThese are children who are not aware that their husbands can use the Ja\u2019fari law to strip their rights \u2014 they can divorce them, marry a second wife, and take their children without dispute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who is profiting from child marriages in Iraq?<\/p>\n
Clerics often take a fee for blessing marriages, religious officials in Kadhimiya confirmed. One official admitted to talking a 15-year-old out of divorcing her husband, adding he would only discuss the subject \u201cwith her father\u2019s permission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dozens of businesses confirmed to the British outlet that since the Ja\u2019fari law passed, they had increased sales.<\/p>\n
Baraa Macer, an influencer and bridal makeup artist, admitted that many of her clients are now under 10.<\/p>\n
A video allegedly displaying an 11-year-old girl cloaked in white shared on Macer\u2019s page gained more than 250,000 views. Macer declined to confirm whether the content was monetized.<\/p>\n
Another Iraqi makeup artist, Zainab Saleem, also known as Makera Dobaa, claimed she disagreed with child marriage but shared her underage client\u2019s videos because \u201cyounger brides get more views\u201d and people ask for ages in the comments.<\/p>\n
Saleem said her youngest client this year was 14, though confirmed that her clients this year had been younger than in previous.<\/p>\n
Ruweida, a bridal make-up artist in Sadr City, also said her clients this year were \u201calmost entirely children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruweida described a \u201c10-year-old girl who cried throughout her hair and makeup, and still her family was proud to say she was marrying an older man. She was trying to resist, but I could see she had bruises all over her head \u2026 this is very common.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iraq\u2019s decision to introduce the Ja\u2019fari law in January means that girls can be married based on perceived…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18716,117298,42,6605,117299,43,117300,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-210429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-baghdad","9":"tag-child-marriage","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-iraq","12":"tag-jafari","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-physical-capacity","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}