John,

Iraq’s parliament is about to vote on a law that would make it legal to marry girls as young as nine.

Thousands of people have been protesting in cities all across Iraq. But religious MPs are dead-set on passing this abusive law.

Iraq has had much success reshaping its global image post-ISIS, and relies heavily on trade deals with governments and partnerships with corporations like GE and Honeywell which both have pending deals with Iraq.

Let's quickly show just how seriously the country's newfound reputation is on the line.

Tell Iraq’s MPs: protect girls and scrap the child marriage law.

The new proposal will tear families and society apart by handing over family affairs to religious clerics — allowing them to decide everything from marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody of children based on sectarian biases rather than civil law. This means that Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law which set the minimum marriage age at 18, will essentially be defunct.

While Iraq is certainly not the only country debating child marriage (and we don’t just mean in the Middle East – several states in the US haven’t officially outlawed it!) – Iraqi women have spent decades fighting for equality, and won. In fact, contrary to how the media depicts it, historically Iraq has some of the strongest protections for women in the Middle East.

But now if this archaic law is passed, it will set Iraq back a century, and put millions of women, girls, and other marginalized individuals at risk of abuse. 

Add your name to help protect women and girls in Iraq. Let's show that new and existing business deals could be at risk unless the parliament scraps this abusive law.

Stop child marriage in Iraq.

Our partners in Iraq told us that different versions of this law have been proposed in parliament over the years, but each time, these attempts were thwarted due to strong opposition. Together, we can do this again!