BAGHDAD When she was sold into marriage to a man 36 years her older, she was only 11 years old. She claimed that in the nine years that have passed, she has been raped, beaten, divorced, and sent back to her family, who have compelled her into slavery and hidden her away out of embarrassment.
She just relocated from the capital, Baghdad, to the Iraqi city of Erbil, where she now works as a prostitute.
Batta claimed that three years after their marriage, her husband sent her back to her family after raping her on their wedding night and beating her frequently. She claimed that they treated her like a pariah rather than showing her sympathy. She consented to only use her parents’ first names and not her real name, as NBC News typically does not identify suspected victims of sexual abuse.
She now worries that if lawmakers approve proposed changes to Iraq’s Personal Status Law that would permit marriage for girls as young as nine and grant religious leaders the authority to make decisions regarding family matters like marriage, divorce, and child custody, other young girls will have to go through similar struggles.
In a phone interview last month, Batta claimed that changing the law would allow parents to sell their young girls. When a girl marries at the age of nine or ten, it indicates that her family has sold her, so I don’t want to call it marriage. Additionally, it gives guys the opportunity to take advantage of the poverty that many Iraqi families are facing.
She s still a little girl
Batta claimed to have overheard a fight between her parents a few months after her father, Hussein, informed her that they were pulling her out of the fourth grade because they couldn’t afford to send her to school.
She claimed that her 55-year-old mother, Hana, was yelling at him, screaming, “Don’t you fear God? She is still a little girl.” How can she handle the responsibilities of being a wife when she is still playing with kids? Even cooking is outside her skill set; she has no idea how to fry an egg.
In response, her father said the man she would marry was a decent man.
He will treat her well and won’t force her to cook, even though he is older than she is. Batta claimed to have overheard him say, “The man just wants to get married,” before he added, “She will marry whether you accept or not.”
When my father urged me to take a shower and put on beautiful clothes, Batta mentioned that she had just turned eleven. She later said that he brought her to an event where a cleric was among the men. According to her, the other two were witnesses to the marriage, and I subsequently found out that one of them was the man who would become my husband.
She later claimed to have found out that the man had given her father 15 million Iraqi dinars, or around $11,300, some of which he had utilized to purchase a new cab. She continued, “I also found out that my husband was 47 years old.”
I had no idea what this man was doing on the first night, the night I lost my virginity. He knelt over me, preventing me from moving my hands or feet, and I cried in excruciating pain, she added. Even though I will always remember this day, I would prefer to forget it.
However, Batta claimed that although her husband was kind to me throughout the first year of their marriage, his treatment of me deteriorated after that.
She added that even slaves were treated better than me, and that he began beating me for everything I did, even watching TV. He would slap me and tell me that I had no right to watch TV.
She claimed that her husband forbade her from going to the burial when her father passed away from liver cirrhosis two years after they were married.
Then, when she was only 14, Batta claimed that he took her to see the same cleric who had married them in July 2016. “This is your daughter, and this is her divorce paper,” she remarked as he brought her back to her family’s house.
According to my mother, she was ashamed of what the neighbors might think and would never let me leave the house. Not even my siblings were kind to me. I was forced to serve everyone in the house, much like a servant.
She claimed that at the age of 16, she made the decision to flee her home and travel to Baghdad. She claimed that after meeting a woman on social media who volunteered to let her stay, she discovered that she operated a brothel.
She said, “I work for her now.” In order to make as much money as possible from males, I go to one of the nightclubs with the other girls, where we dance in front of everyone.
According to her, the woman divides 25% of the total sum we were able to raise during the month at the end of each month, with the remaining portion going for rent and food expenses.
Blatant violation of children s rights
Batta’s early marriage is by no means unique among Iraqi children.
Although Iraqi law permits marriages between girls as young as 15 with the approval of a judge and their parents, according to a UNICEF report from April 2023, 28% of girls are married before the legal age of 18.
A separate 2016 report by the United Nations Population Fund on the effects of child marriage in northern Kurdistan, Iraq, exposed the potential repercussions of child marriage. The report stated that child marriage typically entails unhealthy and ignorant sexual relations, such as forced and unwanted sex, domestic rape, vulnerability to domestic violence, gender-based violence, and adultery.
According to the paper, this eventually has an impact on child spouses’ physical and emotional health.
Nonetheless, MPs who are primarily from the Shia Muslim bloc, which includes the political parties Hikma, State of Law, and Hukok, are supporting changes to the Personal Status Law, also known as Law 188, arguing that they are consistent with both Islamic law and the Constitution of Iraq. Although over 40% of Iraq’s population is Sunni Muslim, the majority of its citizens are Shia.
The current law, which was adopted in 1959, enshrines the rights of women and children while uniting all facets of society under a unified code. In addition to determining the marriage age, it included inheritances, child custody, and alimony payments with an emphasis on women’s and children’s welfare.
Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said the bill was among the most progressive in the Middle East. He said that it had endured conflicts, wars, civil wars, and regime changes over many, many decades.
However, a significant portion of the decision-making authority would be transferred from families and the courts to clerics, some of whom would set the puberty age at nine, under the recently proposed modifications.
Some legislators and rights organizations are worried that this could lead to the legalization and growth of child marriage in the nation.
According to Mansour, the parties putting forth the amendments did so with the promise of democracy and a brighter future for Iraqis. He stated that because they had broken these pledges, the public’s disenchantment grew and there were numerous demonstrations demanding improved services, more employment possibilities, and an end to corruption.
He claimed that their attempts to acquire credibility had diminished. Therefore, some of them are making an effort to reaffirm that they are religious parties and that religion is the foundation of their legitimacy.
Three congressmen who backed the suggested revisions were contacted by NBC News. They all refused to be interviewed.
According to some advocates for the legal amendments, they might contribute to a decrease in divorce rates and an increase in family values.
Lawmaker Dunya Al-Shammari stated in an interview with Iraqi station Al-Forat News in September that they would shield women and families from dissolution and that the only way to uphold these rights is to use Islamic law. “It would help achieve justice between men and women regarding child custody,” she continued.
Others, such as fellow Shia member Alya Nassif, demanded that the revisions be rejected by a vote, just as they were in 2014 and 2017. Nassif described the ideas as hazardous, claiming that the law poses a threat to families and society. She went on to say that instead of legal articles that must be discussed and put to a vote, the members of parliament were given a collection of ideas scribbled on two sheets of paper.
Kurdo Omar, an MP from the Kurdistan Alliance, called the proposed modifications a flagrant violation of children’s rights and stated that she believed their passage would damage Iraq’s standing both at home and abroad.
Both are aiming to completely thwart the revisions, and both participated in a boycott of a second reading of the draft bill in early September that was successful in stopping it from happening.
For starters, Batta hopes they are successful.
She claimed that if the legislation is changed, many young ladies may experience situations like mine.
Since they do not require the funds, I have no doubt that those attempting to amend the law forbid their daughters from getting married young. Nothing else is at stake; money is the only concern.
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