Iraqi Women Slam 12-year-old Girl's Marriage as ‘Rape’

Activists demonstrate outside a court in Iraq's capital Baghdad in protest against the legalization of a marriage contract for a 12-year-old girl. (AFP)
Activists demonstrate outside a court in Iraq's capital Baghdad in protest against the legalization of a marriage contract for a 12-year-old girl. (AFP)
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Iraqi Women Slam 12-year-old Girl's Marriage as ‘Rape’

Activists demonstrate outside a court in Iraq's capital Baghdad in protest against the legalization of a marriage contract for a 12-year-old girl. (AFP)
Activists demonstrate outside a court in Iraq's capital Baghdad in protest against the legalization of a marriage contract for a 12-year-old girl. (AFP)

An Iraqi court adjourned a hearing Sunday to allow a man to formalize his religious marriage to a 12-year-old girl, while feminist activists protested in rejection of this phenomenon.

The mother, who refuses to be identified, said her daughter Israa had been "raped" and that the girl's father kidnapped her.

Lawyer Marwan Obeidi told AFP that the marriage can’t be formalized because the girl is a minor.

The legal age for marriage in Iraq is 18 but can be lowered to 15 in cases of parental or judicial consent, according to the charity Save the Children.

"Religious marriages are not permitted outside civil or religious courts but these types of marriages still happen regularly and can be formalized on the payment of a small fine," it said in a recent report.

But a department of the interior ministry dealing with violence against women said in a statement that it had met with Israa, her father and husband, seen the religious contract, and said she had assured them she had not been coerced.

Rights activists including Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), protested outside the Personal Status Court in Kadhimiya with banners such as “the marriage of minors is a crime against childhood”.

The NGO is also calling for the repeal of article 398 of the criminal code, which “allows the rapist to escape punishment if he marries the victim”.



Egypt Hosts Hamas in New Gaza Ceasefire Push, Looting Halts Aid

Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
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Egypt Hosts Hamas in New Gaza Ceasefire Push, Looting Halts Aid

Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo

Hamas leaders held talks with Egyptian security officials on Sunday in a fresh push for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, two Hamas sources said, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene his security cabinet on the matter, two Israeli officials said.

The Hamas visit to Cairo was the first since the United States announced on Wednesday it would revive efforts in collaboration with Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, that would include a hostage deal.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said he thought the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza were now more likely.

"(Hamas) are isolated. Hezbollah is no longer fighting with them, and their backers in Iran and elsewhere are preoccupied with other conflicts," he told CNN on Sunday, Reuters reported.

"So I think we may have a chance to make progress, but I'm not going to predict exactly when it will happen ... we've come so close so many times and not gotten across the finish line."

Palestinians say Israel's operations on the northern edge of the enclave are part of a plan to clear people out through forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli military strongly denies this and says it is fighting against Hamas.

The military says it has killed hundreds of Hamas militants in that part of Gaza as it fights to stop the faction regrouping. It has also lost around 30 soldiers there in combat with Hamas fighters over the past two months, a relatively high death toll.