Under the new law, which was agreed yesterday, religious authorities have been given the power to decide on family affairs, including marriage, divorce and the care of children. It abolishes a previous ban on the marriage of children under the age of 18
It is an terrible by-product of the changes they made.
The OP makes it sound like this is the reason they made the law - to allow 9 year olds to marry.
There is more to this law than child marriage. Here's what the Guardian said:
Activists argue that this undermines Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and established safeguards for women.
Iraqi law currently sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage in most cases. The changes passed on Tuesday would let clerics rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law, which some interpret to allow marriage of girls in their early teens – or as young as nine under the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shia religious authorities in Iraq.
Proponents of the changes, which were advocated by primarily conservative Shia lawmakers, defend them as a means to align the law with Islamic principles and reduce western influence on Iraqi culture.
The parliament also passed a general amnesty law seen as benefiting Sunni detainees and that is also seen as giving a pass to people involved in corruption and embezzlement. The chamber also passed a land restitution law aimed at addressing Kurdish territorial claims.
Intisar al-Mayali, a human rights activist and a member of the Iraqi Women’s League, said passage of the civil status law amendments “will leave disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls, through the marriage of girls at an early age, which violates their right to life as children, and will disrupt the protection mechanisms for divorce, custody and inheritance for women”.
The session ended in chaos and accusations of procedural violations.
“Half of the lawmakers present in the session did not vote, which broke the legal quorum,” a parliamentary official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment publicly. He said that some members protested loudly and others climbed on to the parliamentary podium.
All is not lost yet.
It may prove to be "unlawful"
It's pretty grim though for girls and women.
