Iraq was once a regional leader in women's civil rights. So what is happening now?
Photo: Ameer Hazim Jasim, Middle East Eye
In 2025, Iraq amended Personal Status Law No. 188. Iraqi Muslims can now choose to have Jaafari Shia rules govern marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance. A couple who choose when they marry cannot change that choice later.
Human Rights Watch says the Jaafari code discriminates against women in marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody. Women's groups and UN experts warn it weakens civil equality and protection for girls.
1959
One civil family law for every Iraqi, whatever their sect.
2025
Parliament lets Iraqi Muslims choose Jaafari rules for family matters.
Now
The Jaafari code, ratified on 30 September 2025, applies to those who choose it.
Law No. 188 of 1959 against the Jaafari code, which applies to Iraqi Muslims who choose it. The code was ratified on 30 September 2025 and published in the Official Gazette on 6 October 2025.
Human Rights Watch calls the code discriminatory against women. That is its assessment, not a court ruling.
Arabic, Official Gazette no. 4843. Our summaries are not a legal translation and have not been checked by an Iraqi lawyer.
Supporters call the code a choice. In practice the person who chooses is often the husband, and the woman living under it has few ways to refuse, leave or ask a court for protection. This is our reading of the code's articles, the amending law and the one court ruling we have found. Claims about Iraq's other laws come from the bodies we name.
The amending law lets one spouse apply for the code. In decision 17/2025 the Federal Court of Cassation held that a husband's request binds his wife and their children even when she does not agree, and even after the marriage has ended. Human Rights Watch reports that a husband can move a marriage contract under the code without his wife's knowledge. In that case the husband used the code to ask a court to remove the mother's custody of two children born in 2014 and 2017. The court reversed the lower court and said that after the age of seven a father's right to custody cannot be disputed unless he is shown to be unfit.
Under Law No. 188, Article 57 tells the court to weigh the child's interest, lets a remarried mother keep her child, and lets the court extend custody to 15. The code sets one rule. The mother has the child until seven, then the father (Article 81), and a mother who marries again loses custody (Article 83). The code does let a court take a child from a custodian who exposes the child to repeated violence, but only after someone sues and only if the custodian ignores a court order to change (Article 86). A mother leaving a violent husband has to prove the violence in court while the child's age is already deciding who gets the child.
A man ends a marriage by saying so in front of two witnesses. His wife does not have to agree, and she does not have to be told (Articles 108, 122 and 126). A woman cannot end the marriage herself. A judge can divorce her only in three listed situations, and only with the approval of the senior Shia religious authority (Articles 73 and 74). A wife in an abusive marriage therefore depends on a cleric who never meets her. Article 72 covers a husband who beats his wife: she may ask a judge to order him to treat her properly, and if he refuses the judge can divorce her at her request. The article says "without justification", which leaves a husband room to argue that his violence was justified, and it sets no penalty.
A wife must make herself available to her husband for sex unless she has an excuse such as illness (Article 65). She may not leave the home without his permission except for urgent needs, and a wife who does loses her right to maintenance (Articles 65 and 68). The articles we read say nothing against forced sex in marriage. Iraq has no domestic violence law, as Human Rights Watch has said for years, so a woman hurt at home has no specific law to use. Human Rights Watch and UNFPA also report that Articles 128 and 409 of the Penal Code let courts treat "honourable motives" as a mitigating excuse.
The marriage chapter sets no minimum age. Article 18 gives a father or grandfather authority over the marriage of a child who is not legally competent and asks only that there be no harm. It states no age, and it leaves the first judgment of harm with the guardian who wants the marriage. The only age limit sits in Article 8 of Law No. 188. The amending law says the code may not go below it, but the code does not repeat it. According to UNICEF figures cited by Human Rights Watch, 28 percent of girls in Iraq already marry before 18. In February 2026 the UN committee that monitors the women's rights convention, CEDAW, told Iraq it had very serious concern about the 2025 changes.
Where the code is silent, courts must ask the scientific council of the Shia Endowment for its opinion and adopt it (Law No. 1 of 2025, article 1(g)). The same council wrote the code, from the views of Jaafari jurists and, where they differ, the majority of senior clerics in Najaf. Parliament had 30 days to approve it once it arrived. The law does not require the council to consult women or women's groups, and no voter can remove its members.
We have found one ruling, decision 17/2025, and it backed the husband's choice and applied the age-seven custody rule. Rights groups expect more cases. If you have been through one, or know of one, tell us and we will add what the courts decide.
Sources: Human Rights Watch, 15 October 2025, Federal Court of Cassation decision 17/2025, the code in the Official Gazette, Law No. 1 of 2025, Law No. 188, Article 57 and the UN's CEDAW review of Iraq. Our summaries are not a legal translation and have not been checked by an Iraqi lawyer.
Check whether the contract is written under Jaafari rules, for example with a deferred dowry payable on demand. The Federal Court of Cassation has held that a request from one spouse is enough to apply the code to both, so a husband can use it later without your agreement. Read the contract, keep a copy, and ask a lawyer before you sign what you can write into it to protect yourself.
Under the code a husband can divorce you without your agreement and without telling you, and a judge can divorce you only in three listed cases with a religious authority's approval. Write down dates, payments and promises, and keep proof of any violence. Talk to a family lawyer early, before any court date.
Under the code custody passes to the father when the child turns seven, and you lose it if you marry again. Keep records of who cares for your child, from school letters to medical visits, and proof of any violence. A court can remove a child from a violent custodian, but you have to prove it.
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