The ruling coalition says the move is in line with a strict interpretation of Islamic law and is intended to protect young girls from “immoral relationships.”

The second reading of the amendment to Law 188 was passed on September 16.

This is not the first time Shia parties in Iraq have tried to change the law on personal status; attempts to do so failed in 2014 and 2017, largely due to a backlash from Iraqi women.

But the coalition now has a large parliamentary majority and is on the verge of pushing the amendment over the line, says Dr Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at Chatham House.

“It’s never been closer,” he told The Telegraph. “It has more momentum than ever before, mainly thanks to the Shia parties,” he said.

“It’s not all Shia parties, it’s just the specific parties that have power and are really putting pressure on it.”

Dr. Renad added that the proposed amendment was part of a broader political movement by Shia Islamist groups to “consolidate their power” and regain legitimacy.

“Emphasizing the religious side is a way for them to try to regain some of the ideological legitimacy that has diminished in recent years,” he said. The Telegraph.

It is not yet clear exactly when the amendment will go to Parliament for a vote, but it could come at any time, he said.

An attack on women, girls… and the social fabric of Iraq

Experts and activists say the amendment would effectively erase key rights of women in the country.

“The amendment would not only undermine these rights,” said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It would erase them.”

Athraa Al-Hassan, international human rights legal adviser and director of Model Iraqi Woman, said The Telegraph she is “afraid” that Iraq’s system of governance will be replaced by a new system known as the Guardianship of the Jurist – a Shia system that places religious rule above the state.

The system is the same that underpins the regimes in Afghanistan and Iran, where a Guardian Lawyer is the country’s supreme leader.

Iraq already has a high rate of child marriage. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about 28 percent of women in Iraq are married by the age of 18.

This is due to a loophole in the personal status law, which allows religious leaders, rather than the courts, to conduct thousands of marriages every year – including those involving girls as young as 15, with the father’s consent.

These unregistered marriages are widespread in economically poor, ultra-conservative Shia communities in Iraq.

But because marriage is not recognized by law, girls and the children they bear are denied a plethora of rights.

For example, hospitals can refuse women who are admitted for childbirth without a marriage certificate.

The amendment would legitimize these religious marriages, putting young girls at greater risk of sexual and physical violence and denying them access to education and employment, Human Rights Watch said.