Monday, April 16, 2018

In March of 2014, over two dozen women demonstrated in Baghdad, against an Iraqi approved draft law. This draft law from the cabinet allowed women to be married at the age of nine instead of 18. The law would also grant girls custody to fathers. Thus, the fathers are the only one who can deny or accept a marriage proposal, and the mother has no input. This law would also legalize marital rape. This entitles the husband to marital sex with or without the young wife's consent. Further, if the law was passed women would not be able to leave the residence without the permission of the husband. In case of divorce the law allows children over the age of two to automatically be in the custody of the father. This law would subject women to abuse in the household and of their basic human rights. The state had the upper hand when deciding what age young girls should be married and the protesters wanted to have some input. One of the ways the women of Baghdad mobilized was through a frozen flash mob in a shopping mall. This flash mob was an effective strategy to draw attention to the movement. During the flash mob men, women, and children participated. There were a variety of scenes that depicted the life of a girl forced marriage at age nine. One of the many scenes was of a young girl holding a doll looking afraid and being taken by a significantly older man. The other participants in the frozen flash mob were fathers holding their young daughters hands. Also, there were men trying to buy and convince young girls to come with them. The Flash mob denounced young forced marriages of Iraqi girls. The resourcefulness of the women in Iraq used their platforms to come together into one movement. The Organization of Women’s Freedom and a variety of other women’s rights groups in Iraq came together to protest in main square in Iraq. The conjoined women's rights groups debated with the drafter of the law, the Minister of Justice. The women's protest often used the media as a platform for debates and discussions like BBC Arabic. These Women Human rights groups mobilized the public opinion against the law. Due to these efforts the Prime Minister chose to halt the proposal and made the committee review the law further. The women’s organizations are still advocating to make sure the draft of the law is thrown away. This powerful movement frame showed the flaws in the society and the culture in Iraq. The solution is to stop this law altogether but the movement understands this will take some time. The rapid gain of mass following came with the attention from the initial Frozen flash mob. The possible reason behind doing such an act was for the public to see this issue in a creative way directly in front of them when they least expect it, a busy mall. This use of modern practices link political and historical ideals embedded in Iraqi culture. Regardless, of the Women’s organizations political organization they all came to illuminate the heterogeneity in Iraq.

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