After Iraq legalizes child marriage, Baghdad bridal market booms as young girls sold to older men

December 30, 2025 3oliver

After Iraq legalizes child marriage, Baghdad bridal market booms as young girls sold to older men

DANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD

Mon, December 29, 2025 at 7:37 PM UTC

3 min read

A young Iraqi girl who has reached the age of wearing a hijab, is clothed in the head covering worn by many Muslim women for the first time during a ceremony organised at the Basra International Stadium in Iraq

Iraq’s decision to introduce the Ja’fari law in January means that girls can be married based on perceived “maturity and physical capacity.”

Baghdad’s bridal industry has seen a massive boom since Iraq legalized child marriage, and human rights organizations have warned that young girls are being auctioned off in black market sales to older men, a Sunday Times investigation revealed on Saturday.

The relatives of Amani, a 12-year-oldgirl set to be married off to a 17-year-old she has never met, told the Sunday Times that the ceremony would go ahead “without the need for her permission.”

A local cleric confirmed that Amani could be married, as she had started puberty.

Iraq’s decision to introduce the Ja’fari law in January means that girls can be married based on perceived “maturity and physical capacity.”

One of Amani’s relatives admitted that, after the amendment passed, four of her younger cousins were quickly married off to older men for “financial reasons.”

A girl holds a placard as activists demonstrate against female child marriages, in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad on July 28, 2024, amid parliamentary discussion over a proposed amendment to the Iraqi Personal Status Law. Rights advocates are alarmed by a bill introduced to Iraq's parliament that, (credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images) — A girl holds a placard as activists demonstrate against female child marriages, in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad on July 28, 2024, amid parliamentary discussion over a proposed amendment to the Iraqi Personal Status Law. Rights advocates are alarmed by a bill introduced to Iraq’s parliament that, (credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

An activist told the paper that under the new law, “parents can exchange daughters for money or status,” and the legislation amounted to “legalizing child rape.”

Even before the law passed, 28% of girls in Iraq were married before the age of 18, and a further 22% of unregistered marriages involve girls under 14, the United Nations reported in 2023.

Ghezi, who oversees shelters for runaway girls of forced marriage under The Organization of Women’s Freedom Iraq (OWFI) in Baghdad, confirmed to the paper, “We have seen a growing black market in Iraq where fathers are selling their daughters, pulling them out of education, mostly because of poverty … but they have been encouraged by some [clerics] who may benefit.”

Ghezi added, “These are children who are not aware that their husbands can use the Ja’fari law to strip their rights — they can divorce them, marry a second wife, and take their children without dispute.”

Who is profiting from child marriages in Iraq?

Clerics often take a fee for blessing marriages, religious officials in Kadhimiya confirmed. One official admitted to talking a 15-year-old out of divorcing her husband, adding he would only discuss the subject “with her father’s permission.”

Dozens of businesses confirmed to the British outlet that since the Ja’fari law passed, they had increased sales.

Baraa Macer, an influencer and bridal makeup artist, admitted that many of her clients are now under 10.

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A video allegedly displaying an 11-year-old girl cloaked in white shared on Macer’s page gained more than 250,000 views. Macer declined to confirm whether the content was monetized.

Another Iraqi makeup artist, Zainab Saleem, also known as Makera Dobaa, claimed she disagreed with child marriage but shared her underage client’s videos because “younger brides get more views” and people ask for ages in the comments.

Saleem said her youngest client this year was 14, though confirmed that her clients this year had been younger than in previous.

Ruweida, a bridal make-up artist in Sadr City, also said her clients this year were “almost entirely children.”

Ruweida described a “10-year-old girl who cried throughout her hair and makeup, and still her family was proud to say she was marrying an older man. She was trying to resist, but I could see she had bruises all over her head … this is very common.”

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