Tech 4 Peace
What is the truth behind the video of a 9-year-old girl marrying a 30-year-old man in Iraq?
A video clip with the following text was circulated on social media: “Unusual in Arab Iraq, an official marriage between a 9-year-old girl and a 35-year-old man has been documented.”
The truth
The claims about the incident are false, and it is not in Iraq.
We verified this by examining the circulated video and noticed that the car in it has a Libyan license plate, which negates the validity of the claim attached to the post that the incident took place in Iraq.
To find out the truth about the incident, we contacted the person appearing with the girl, whose name is (Mahmoud Al-Warfali), and he denied that the video shows his marriage to the girl, stating that she is "his brother's daughter", confirming that he is from Libya.
Al-Werfali provided us with a video clip from a fact-checking organization that clarified the truth of the incident, as the clip shows other pictures of Al-Werfali with the girl and a denial of it.
The young man shared the clip on his personal Facebook page on January 17, 2025, with the caption, “This indicates that there are pages in my beloved country, Libya, that deny false news that promotes the misleading of citizens,” in order to share the denial he provided to the “She Checks” page, which specializes in fact-checking.
The Asber Center, specialized in fact-checking, also clarified the truth of the post on January 14, 2025, and also denied it again on January 15, 2025, confirming that she is his brother's daughter.
Child Marriage in Iraq
Around the middle of last year, MP (Raed Al-Maliki) proposed amending the Personal Status Law No. (188) of 1959, which caused controversy in the Iraqi street between supporters of the amendment and opponents.
This led to concerns from organizations concerned with the family and child regarding the age of marriage for females, the rights of separate women, and child custody.
This resulted in the announcement of the formation of an alliance called the (188) Alliance to defend the Personal Status Law, which includes many activists, many civil society organizations and political parties. Many protests were also held in several Iraqi governorates to reject the amendment of the Personal Status Law.
The Iraqi Council of Representatives completed the first reading of the amendment proposal on August 4, 2024, and completed the second reading on September 16, 2024.
It is noteworthy that the agenda of session No. (3) of the Iraqi Council of Representatives for Tuesday, January 21, 2025, also includes voting on amending Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959 for Articles (2,10).
