Photo: Iraqi parliament's official website
Gender role model
Iraqi parliamentary committee on women holds workshop to ‘benefit’ from Iranian family laws
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Parliamentary Committee on Women, Family, and Childhood, chaired by lawmaker Dunia al-Shammari, hosted a workshop Saturday to explore and “benefit” from Iranian legislation as “a model” for drafting Iraq’s Family Protection Law, according to a statement from Parliament’s media office.
The event, held at the Iraqi Parliament building in collaboration with the cultural advisory office of the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, featured Fatemeh Ghasempour, a former member of Iran’s Consultative Assembly, along with female legislators, academics, civil society activists, and Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Huda Sajad.
Discussions “focused on reviewing the laws enacted in Iran based on Islamic law and utilizing them in drafting the Family Protection Law by the Iraqi Parliament,” the statement said. Al-Shammari emphasized that the proposed legislation aims to “address issues threatening Iraqi families and prevent societal fragmentation.”
She added that the workshop was organized “to examine the experience of the laws enacted in the Republic of Iran and how they overcame the challenges they faced during the legislative process.”
Ghasempour outlined aspects of Iranian family law, including population policies and regulations governing family affairs, while reviewing articles of Iran’s Family Protection Law and the procedures for its enactment. “These procedures were developed within a purely Islamic framework, encompassing plans to facilitate marriage, empower family building, and protect its structure from external influences,” the statement read.
Iranian family law is rooted in Islamic Sharia principles and governs areas such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. The legal framework designates the husband as the head of the family and imposes the concept of “obedience,” requiring a wife to meet her husband’s “marital needs.” A wife who refuses without a legitimate excuse is labeled “nashizah”, or rebellious, potentially losing her entitlement to financial support.
Article 1108 of the Iranian Civil Code codifies this obligation: “If the wife refuses to fulfill duties of a wife without legitimate excuse, she will not be entitled to the cost of maintenance.”
Historically, men have held a unilateral right to divorce without justification, as enshrined in Article 1133 of the Civil Code: “A man can divorce his wife whenever he wishes to do so.” Women, by contrast, face significant legal hurdles to initiate divorce.
Inheritance laws also reflect gender disparities. A widow inherits one-eighth of her husband’s estate if they have children and one-quarter without children. A widower, however, inherits one-quarter of his wife’s estate with children and one-half without.
In custody matters, mothers generally retain custody of sons and daughters until the age of seven, after which custody typically transfers to the father.
The workshop comes as ongoing debate over proposed amendments to Iraq’s Personal Status Law rages in Iraq.
In August 2024, Parliament conducted the first reading of a draft amendment to Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959, which would grant religious authorities greater control over personal status issues. Opponents, including women’s rights groups and civil society organizations, warn that the changes could enable child marriages by allowing religious interpretations to set marriageable ages as low as nine for girls.
Critics fear adopting aspects of Iran’s approach could reverse decades of progress, eroding protections for women and children while deepening sectarian divisions.