Protest against the marriage of minors in Baghdad

The feminist activists and civil society organizations held a protest in front of the Personal Status Court in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad, against the marriage of minor girls, considering it a crime against childhood. The protests also came to support the case of the twelve-year-old girl, Esraa, whose forced marriage ratification was rejected after she was forced to acknowledge her consent in violation of the Iraqi constitution, which prohibits the ratification of external marriages under the age of fifteen. The director of the Freedoms Observatory for the Defense of Women and Children, Lina Ali Hussein, criticized the Iraqi law for not protecting women and children, which allows the marriage of minor girls and brings to mind the return of the slave trade if this continues.