Iraq to lower age of consent for girls to just 9 years old and allow men to marry young kids: ‘This law legalizes child rape’
World News - November 10, 2024
Iraq is poised to pass a new law that would lower the legal age of consent from 18 to nine, allowing men to marry young girls, according to a new report.
The Shia conservative groups that dominate Iraq’s parliament have proposed an amendment to the country’s “personal status law” that could see a Taliban-style rollback of all women’s rights.
The chance would allow young girls to be married off and put nearly all family decisions in the hands of religious authorities, said Raya Faiq, who is coordinating a challenge against the bill with female Iraqi representatives.
“This is a catastrophe for women,” Faiq told The Guardian. “This law legalizes child rape.”
Bishop Accountability - May 30, 2025 Winnipeg, MB - In May 2025, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation published a list of over 100 Oblate priests and brothers who worked in Canadian residential schools. The list aims to support transparency, accountability, and healing for Indigenous communities. These schools, many run by the Oblates, were part of a system that forcibly assimilated Indigenous children and led to widespread abuse. The release helps centralize scattered records and acknowledges the Church’s role in this dark chapter of Canadian history.
The Eastern Graphic - May 28, 2025 Georgetown, ON - A retired Catholic priest appeared in Georgetown Provincial Court on Thursday facing three sex-related charges stemming from the late 1980s against a minor. The 79-year-old man is charged with sexual touching of a person under 14 and sexual assault. He was also charged under Section 159 of the Criminal Code, which prohibited anal intercourse except between a husband and wife or people over the age of 18. That section has since been repealed but was in effect at the time.