The Child Brides of Iraq

The Child Brides of Iraq

At this year’s Sulaimani Forum, hosted by the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS), it was disheartening to hear Zahra al-Sadr of the Al-Hikma Movement, a Shiite political bloc with roots in Iraq’s clerical establishment, defend child marriage on a public stage. She claimed that Shiites conceive of what she called “early marriage” as a cultural issue. “We don’t approach the topic with propaganda or a view that directly opposes the idea.…