Quote:Iraq is set to lower the legal age of consent from nine years old, a decision that women’s rights activists say will “legalise child rape”.

Quote:The amendment to the country’s “personal status law” – also known as Law 188 – would allow adult men to marry young girls, putting them at increased risk of sexual and physical violence, as well as deprive women of rights to divorce, child custody and inheritance.

Established in 1959, Law 188 was viewed as one of the most progressive in the Middle East, acting as a safeguard for families, regardless of religious sect.

The proposal to overturn it is the latest step in a more than decade-long push to erode women’s rights by conservative Shia Muslim groups, a coalition of which now dominate the Iraqi parliament.