Mothers take protest against Jaafari custody rules to Baghdad’s Firdos Square

BAGHDAD — Women protesting amendments to Iraq’s personal status law that introduced Jaafari rules gathered in Baghdad’s Firdos Square on Friday, carrying demonstrations that began in Basra to the capital and demanding changes to custody provisions and an end to the law’s retroactive application.

The protesters marched toward Kahramana Square, calling for the repeal of Decision No. 93 and for changes to provisions they say allow children, including 13-year-olds, to be taken from their mothers. They also demanded equal rights for men and women and stronger protection for children against abuse, dropping out of school and family breakdown. They carried messages to Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan and Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi, accusing politicians of passing legislation that had harmed families rather than protected them.

“The Jaafari law is not Jaafari at all. It is a political law introduced to serve politicians’ interests during an election period, nothing more and nothing less,” activist Manar al-Aqabi told 964media. Women were being pressured by former husbands over custody, sometimes into giving up financial rights or accepting humiliating conditions to stay with their children, she said. “I can guarantee you that every Iraqi woman here has been pressured by her husband, either to give up her rights, sign promissory notes, or live with him and his wife in the same room without saying a word about anything.”

“They claimed it would protect the family and its stability, but it has torn Iraqi families apart and left children on the streets, out of school, abused and even being given drugs,” Aqabi said, pointing to appeals by child welfare activists, including Hisham al-Dhahabi, over children placed in shelters without their families’ knowledge. “The second and most important point is abolishing the retroactive application and Decision No. 93.”

Parliament approved amendments to Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959 on Jan. 21, 2025, letting families choose between civil law and religious jurisprudence on marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody, and they took effect on Feb. 18, 2025. Under the Jaafari framework, mothers generally keep custody until a child turns 7, after which it passes to the father. Under Article 57 of the 1959 law, mothers had priority in custody during marriage and after separation unless the child’s welfare was at risk, until the child was 10, which a court could extend to 15. The Federal Supreme Court upheld the amendments on Sept. 11, 2025, rejecting challenges to their constitutionality. Supporters say they protect the right to apply religious rules to family matters; women’s rights advocates say they reduce legal protection for mothers and children.

A protester who gave her name as Um Noor said her son’s father had repeatedly put the boy out of the house at night. “My son’s father kicked him out into the street at night, not just once but several times, even though he is a child and for no convincing reason,” she said. “He tells him he has to stay at his aunt’s or uncle’s house because he works from morning until night and has nobody to look after him.” It had become so distressing that her son asked to call the police after being put out, she said. She called for the Jaafari code to be amended, its retroactive application ended and “equality between the rights of men and women without discrimination.”

Um Ali said her 13-year-old daughter was at an age when she needed her mother. “When she goes to her father, what will he do for her? How will he understand her? Most fathers are married and do not pay attention to the children,” she said. “A mother breaks her back for her children, works hard and raises them, and in the end they are taken away from her.” Appeals had come to nothing, she said. “We appealed to Ali al-Zaidi, but it did no good. We appealed to Faiq Zidan and the Supreme Judicial Council, but nothing came of it. We also appealed to the religious authorities, but nothing.” She turned to the speaker: “Look at the injustice we face. Look at these women. I appeal to you, by the milk your mother nursed you with, to give these wronged mothers justice, because Shiite women have been wronged, and the Jaafari law has wronged them.”

On July 18, dozens of mothers protested outside the Supreme Judicial Council in Baghdad’s Harithiya neighborhood against provisions allowing husbands to change existing marriage contracts without their wives’ consent, warning that applying the changes to marriages already concluded could cost mothers custody. At a June 6 protest in Firdos Square, mothers said their children had been neglected and mistreated after custody passed to their fathers, and one said her children had run away from their father’s home back to her after several days.