Kurdish panel warns of Iraqi Personal Status Law risks
Shafaq News – Al-Sulaymaniyah
The Kurdish Women’s Relation Office (REPAK) hosted a panel in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Al-Sulaymaniyah on Sunday to address legal and social risks posed by Iraq’s amended Personal Status Law (PSL).
Held at the High Crest Hotel to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the event featured legal scholar Dr. Razaw Goli and lawyer-activist Razan Sheikh Daler, who both warned that the proposed changes threaten decades of women’s rights progress in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
Dr. Goli criticized the draft’s 337 new articles for “lacking legal foundation” and flagged provisions permitting out-of-court child marriages as especially dangerous to girls’ health, rights, and legal status.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Daler urged a coordinated campaign to block regressive laws, warning that even without enforcement in Kurdistan, the federal statute could influence national policy and reinforce harmful norms. She condemned the silence of some Kurdish lawmakers, stressing, “Women and children are often the first victims of reckless legislation, especially those undermining guardianship and early marriage protections.”
The session concluded with an open forum where activists, writers, and politicians called for urgent action to protect women's rights and stop laws that reverse hard-won legal gains.
In January 2025, Iraq’s parliament passed sweeping PSL amendments allowing girls as young as nine to marry with parental consent, introducing the Jaafari code—based on Twelver Shia jurisprudence—as an optional framework for family law. Human Rights Watch condemned the amendments as “a rollback on equality and a threat to the rights of women and girls.”
Read more: Iraq’s Controversial Personal Status Law: The future of girls at a crossroads
