Iraq must do more to protect women after a harassment incident in Basra sparked nationwide outrage and highlighted gender-based violence, activists have told The National.
A video went viral showing dozens of men mobbing and shoving a screaming woman before she was pushed into a car during a New Year’s celebration event. Authorities have arrested 17 people in connection with the case.
Suhaila Al Assam, a member of the Iraqi Women’s League, told The National the arrests were not enough and “more must be done to stop attacks on women”.
“What happened in Basra is a serious indicator of the continuation of violence and violations against women," she said.
"It reflects the weakness of law enforcement, lack of real deterrence for perpetrators, and the social norms that justify or tolerate violence."
The harassed woman’s mother has asked for the video to be taken down from social media. Violence against women, including through so-called "honour killings", has long plagued Iraq's deeply patriarchal society, although there are no official statistics.
“Women in Iraq are not adequately protected despite the existence of some constitutional and legal texts, which are just ink on paper,” said Ms Al Assam, who added that there are no laws against domestic violence.
She said harassment of girls and women at public events was becoming increasingly common because of a lack of punishment for perpetrators. Iraq has a “weak law enforcement system and shows little accountability for such crimes, which encourages the recurrence of violence”, she said.
Tahira Dhakil, a former member of parliament and a university professor, told The National that some extremist social and religious norms enabled violence to persist against women.
“I blame [extremist] religious men for allowing these men to attack the young innocent woman," she said.
She said the causes of the Basra incident lay in deep social repression that creates the ground for misconduct towards women.
The Iraqi parliament must ratify and put into effect a Child Rights Act that has been in review since 2022, she said.
“This would be the first step to stop violence against girls, boys and children. It’s imperative that the government passes this draft law,” Ms Dhakil said.
“I find this very important, especially to report violence that women are exposed to, which sets the trend for future generations to stop these horrific acts."
Legal position
Iraq’s penal code has loopholes that enable domestic violence, with provisions that allow a husband to punish his wife, parents to discipline their children, and lenient sentences to be given for violent acts – even murder – if they have so-called “honourable motives”.
In addition, parliament passed amendments to the country’s personal status law in October 2024 that would, in effect, legalise child marriage.
Iraqi law currently sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage in most cases. But the changes passed would let clerics rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law, potentially allowing the marriage of girls in their early teens – or as young as nine under the Jaafari school of Islamic law, followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq.
"The harassment incident that occurred has shed light on an increase in child marriages since the amendments were put in place," Ms Dhakil said.
Human rights activists say child marriages are extremely difficult to track because they take place outside the legal system.
"We do not have such figures, and it remains unclear whether accurate data even exists," said Razaw Salihy, an Iraq researcher for Amnesty International.
"Before the passing of the amendments to the personal status law, which muddied these waters further, such marriages would, in theory, have constituted a breach of the law and therefore remained unregistered.
"The impact of the amendments to the personal status law is already being felt, though they are being applied inconsistently and without clear safeguards."
In some governorates, courts have begun enforcing the changes in marriage and custody cases, the researcher said.
This has been seen in ways that "undermine existing protections by allowing husbands to unilaterally alter marriage contract terms in their favour," she said.
The UN has reported that more than one million women and girls across Iraq are at risk of gender-based violence.
