Iraq May Legalize Child-Marriage

A law being considered in Iraq for the country's majority Shiite population would legalize marriage to girls as young as nine and allow a husband to have sex with his wife regardless of consent. The draft measure was introduced by Iraq's Justice Ministry at the end of 2013, and was recently approved. It is based on a school of religious law found by the Shiite imam Jaafar al-Sadiq. Nearly a quarter of all marriages in Iraq have one person under the age of 18. The measure must be ratified by parliament before it becomes law. The Shiite majority came to power after the 2003 invasion by the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.