IRAQ Women and Children Confront the Jaafari Personal Status Code: An Appeal for International Feminist Solidarity

On 16 October 2026, women and children in Iraq took to the streets in protest against the Jaafari Personal Status Code, defending the rights of women and children and rejecting every attempt to undermine those rights and reverse the progress made through decades of struggle and sacrifice by Iraqi women in pursuit of equality, justice and dignity.

We took to the streets today because we refuse to allow the lives of women and children to become a battleground for political and sectarian conflicts. We reject the subordination of our rights to the interests and political calculations of the ruling forces.
Our concerns about the Jaafari Personal Status Code are far from abstract. They concern the future of entire generations, children’s right to their mothers and their care, the protection of girls from early and child marriage, and women’s rights in matters of marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance and other issues that directly affect their lives, dignity and autonomy.
We are not waging a struggle against any religion or belief. We are fighting for human rights and for a state that protects all its citizens on the basis of equality and justice, rather than sectarian discrimination or discrimination between women and men.
The transformation of personal status law from a civil legal framework that safeguards rights into legislation shaped by religious and sectarian interpretations raises serious concerns about the erosion of women’s and children’s rights. It threatens the gains for which generations of Iraqi women have struggled.
Our protest today, alongside women and children, sends a clear message to the authorities and to the international community: we will not remain silent in the face of any legislation that threatens our rights or undermines our dignity.
Motherhood is not a crime. A child’s right to their mother and her care is not negotiable. Girls are not wives. Women’s rights are not privileges granted by anyone that can be taken away at someone else’s discretion.
As the Iraq Coordination of the World March of Women, within the North Africa and Eastern Mediterranean Region, we affirm that the struggle of Iraqi women is part of the global struggle of women against violence, discrimination and domination, and for freedom, equality and social justice.
We call for the protection of Personal Status Law No. 188 against any regression that undermines the rights of women and children. We demand effective safeguards to protect girls from child marriage, uphold mothers’ rights to custody and care, and ensure that the best interests of the child and the protection of children’s rights are the fundamental principles guiding all legislation and decisions affecting their future.
We also call on international feminist movements, human rights organisations, trade unions and progressive forces to stand in solidarity with the women of Iraq, amplify their voices internationally, and support their struggle to protect the rights of women and children.
To our comrades in feminist movements everywhere,
Do not leave the women of Iraq alone in this struggle. Your solidarity is an integral part of our collective fight, because what happens to women in any part of the world is never isolated from the struggles of women elsewhere. Rights we fail to defend today may come under threat tomorrow in other parts of the world.
We, the women of Iraq, are not asking for pity. We are demanding rights and justice. We raise our voices because we believe that the future of our children and the dignity of our women must never become the price paid for political and sectarian conflicts.

No to the Jaafari Personal Status Code.
No to child marriage.
No to depriving mothers of their children.
Yes to equality, justice, freedom and the protection of childhood.

Iraq Coordination of the World March of Women
North Africa and Eastern Mediterranean Region