Minatullah Alobaidi (she/her) holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, majoring in contemporary Arab studies with a focus on development and politics in the Middle East. Originally from Baghdad, Iraq, she earned her bachelor’s degree in international studies from the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. She has also served as a researcher and a consultant and has worked with international organizations, such as IREX, Heartland Alliance International, and the World Bank.
Child Marriage in Iraq: Religious Authority, Legal Frameworks, and Media Influence
This research project examines the complex relationship between religious authority, legal frameworks, and media representation in legitimizing child marriage in Iraq. Following a 2025 amendment to Iraq’s Personal Status Code, which aligns with the Jafari Shiite school of jurisprudence and potentially legalizes more child marriages, this study investigates how religious interpretations are used to normalize this harmful practice, especially impacting underage girls. The core question is how these three forces—clerical authority, law, and media—interact in contemporary Iraq to shape perceptions and legality of child marriage, and what the consequences are for children’s rights and welfare. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, including legal analysis of the new Personal Status Code against international human rights standards, media content analysis of broadcasts and social media on child marriage, semi-structured interviews with activists, legal experts, religious leaders, and media personnel, and theological discourse analysis of religious texts cited by proponents of child marriage. An intersectional framework guides the analysis, focusing on gender, age, socioeconomic status, sectarian differences, urban-rural divides, and power dynamics in clerical authority across communities. This approach aims to reveal the structural factors that perpetuate vulnerabilities to child marriage, with attention to how the practice differentially affects ethnic and minority groups, comparing federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. Findings will be disseminated through academic publications, policy briefs, media engagement, community workshops, and international conferences, aiming to influence legal reforms, public awareness, and local solutions to protect children’s rights in Iraq. This research moves beyond prevalence statistics to expose the mechanisms by which religious, legal, and media narratives normalize child marriage, providing actionable insights for human rights advocacy and policy development.