Young Iraqi women battle for recognition of marriage, child's rights

Shafaq News/ Eighteen-year-old Samar (pseudonym) sits anxiously outside Kirkuk's Court of Appeals, clutching documents that could change her life. The young woman seeks to register a past marriage, hoping to secure legal rights for herself and her child.

Forced by her father to marry a much older man, the marriage lasted barely a year and a half before ending in divorce. Left with a young child and no official marriage record, she struggles to obtain basic rights for both of them.

"He divorced me and abandoned me with a baby," Samar told Shafaq News Agency, referring to her former husband. "I haven't even turned 20, and I don't know what to do."

Samar's only hope lies in validating the religious marriage certificate used during the ceremony. This document would prove her former husband's paternity and grant them access to basic government services.

"For months, I've been working with a lawyer to register the marriage," she explains. "My child needs his father's name to be registered, and I need an official marriage contract. Without it, I can't get Iraqi citizenship or even basic services."

Samar's story reflects a wider issue in Kirkuk. A source at the Kirkuk Court of Appeals reveals that while official marriages are documented, a significant number occur outside the court system. In January alone, 1248 marriages were registered, 72 of which involved women married outside the court. However, the source assured that marriages meeting the criteria can be registered officially upon presentation of the religious marriage certificate and witness testimonies.

Surood Mohammed Faleh, head of the Hope Association's Kirkuk branch, shed light om the plight of many young girls pressured into marriage. "Hundreds of marriages take place outside the courts," Faleh says. "These often unregistered unions end in divorce without ever reaching the court system."

Faleh recounts a particularly disturbing case: a 12-year-old girl groomed for marriage to an older man. "The girl begged not to be married," Faleh recalls. "She wanted to have education and seek a future for herself, not to be sold off like her mother."

"Procedures exist to register marriages outside the court system," Lawyer Hassan Mustafa said. "With a religious marriage certificate and witnesses, registration can be expedited."

Mustafa explained that a wife can seek judicial separation for valid reasons, such as the husband's incurable illness or abusive behavior.