Iraq passes three controversial bills

Iraq passes three controversial bills

BAGHDAD
Iraq passes three controversial bills

Iraq’s parliament has passed three divisive laws, including amendments to the country's personal status law that opponents say would in effect legalize child marriage.

One of the bills seeks the return of properties to their original Turkmen and Kurdish owners. The land was taken from them and given to Arab settlers by the Baathist Revolutionary Command Council decades ago.

The general amnesty bill seeks to amend the 2016 law’s definition of affiliation with terrorist organizations, a key Sunni demand for joining the ruling coalition. Sunnis argued that thousands from their community have been unjustly imprisoned in Shiite-dominated Iraq since 2003 over alleged terror links.

The third one give Islamic courts increased authority over family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Activists argue that this undermines Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and established safeguards for women.

Iraqi law currently sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage in most cases. The changes passed on Jan. 21 would let clerics rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law, which some interpret to allow marriage of girls in their early teens — or as young as 9 under the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq.

Proponents of the changes, which were advocated by primarily conservative Shiite lawmakers, defend them as a means to align the law with Islamic principles and reduce Western influence on Iraqi culture.