Baghdad:
Iraq's parliament on Tuesday passed a revised bill that had sparked outrage over fears it would roll back women's rights and allow underage marriages.
Parliament said on its website that it had adopted “the proposal to amend the law on personal status” as well as “the second amendment to the general amnesty law.”
The 1959 amendment to the Personal Status Act allows people to choose between religious or civil arrangements for family matters such as marriage, inheritance, divorce and child custody.
An earlier version of the amendments faced opposition from feminists and civil society groups over fears it would lower the minimum age for Muslim girls to get married to just nine years old.
But a revised version restored the old law's clauses that set the marriage age at 18 – or 15 with the consent of legal guardians and a judge, MP Mohamed Anouz told AFP.
Under the new amendment, couples can choose Shia Muslim or Sunni Muslim rules, and clerics and lawyers will have four months to establish community-specific rules.
In October, Amnesty International warned that the changes could deprive women and girls of protections over divorce and inheritance.
Parliament also passed a general amnesty law that had sparked disagreements between political blocs. The law allows new trials for those convicted of a number of crimes.
The Taqadom Party, the most influential Sunni bloc, welcomed the passage of the amnesty law.
Iraq's Sunni community has been the main supporter of a revision of the law, pushing for it to include a full review of all convictions for terrorist attacks.
The law excludes convictions for “terrorist crimes” that led to a person's death or “permanent disability,” or related to the fight against Iraqi security forces or “sabotage of institutions,” Anouz said.
But it does give the judiciary the ability to reopen investigations and start new trials for those who say they confessed “under torture” or were convicted based on “information provided by a secret informant,” Anouz explained.
In recent years, Iraqi courts have ordered hundreds of executions in terror cases, proceedings that rights groups say often lack fair trials or allow confessions allegedly extracted through torture.
In a country plagued by endemic corruption, those accused of embezzling public funds can also benefit from the amnesty law if they pay back the stolen money, Anouz said.
A previous amnesty in 2016 reportedly covered 150,000 people.
The new amnesty law excludes rape, incest and human trafficking.
The laws passed on Tuesday, each approved by the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities, were adopted in a single package, with political parties agreeing to avoid any blockade.
But several lawmakers have denounced irregularities in the voting process, with some threatening to go to court to have Tuesday's session declared invalid.
MP Nour Nafe claimed that parliament had passed the personal status and general amnesty law “without a vote”.
The MPs “did not raise their hands”, she said on X, adding that some lawmakers had left the room in response to the “farce”.
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